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YALE  LECTURES  ON  THE 
RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  CITIZENSHIP 


FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC   DUTY 


IN    THE    SAME    SERIES 


Four  Aspects  of  Civic  Duty.  By  William  How- 
ard Taft,  Secretary  of  War,  First  Civil  Gov- 
ernor of  the  Philippine  Islands.    12mo  .  net,  $1.00 

Freedom  and  Responsibility.  By  Arthur  Twin- 
ing Hadley,  President  of  Yale  University. 
12mo net,  $1.00 

The  Citizen  in  His  Relation  to  the  Industrial 
Situation.  By  Henry  C.  Potter,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Bishop  of  New  York.    12mo    ....  net,  $1.00 

American  Citizenship.  By  David  J.  Brewer,  Asso- 
ciate Justice,  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
12mo net,  $0.75 


FOUR  ASPECTS  OF 
CIVIC  DUTY 


BY 


WILLIAM    HOWARD    TAFT 

SECRETARY  OF  WAR 
FIRST  CIVIL  GOVERNOR  OF  THE   PHILIPPINE   ISLANDS 


NEW    YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

1906 


\ 


Copyright,  1906 
By  Yale  University 


Published,  December,  1906 
|5H' 


^ 


TROW  DIRECTORY 

PRINTING  AND   BOOKBINOINO  COMPANY 

NEW    YORK 


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<5 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


I.  The  Duties  of  Citizenship  Viewed  from 
the  Standpoint  of  a  Recent  Gradu- 
ate of  a  University 3 

II.  The  Duties  of  Citizenship  Viewed  from 
the  Standpoint  of  a  Judge  on  the 
Bench 35 

III.  The  Duties  of  Citizenship  Viewed  from 

the  Standpoint  of  Colonial  Admin- 
istration     61 

IV.  The  Duties  of  Citizenship  Viewed  from 

the    Standpoint    of    the    National 
Executive 20 


FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 


THE  DUTIES  OP  CITIZENSHIP  VIEWED  FROM 
THE  STANDPOINT  OF  A  RECENT  GRADUATE 
OF  A  UNIVERSITY 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen  of  Yale: 

My  occupations  within  the  last  month  have  been 
so  numerous,  various,  and  absorbing  that  it  ha9 
been  very  difficult  for  me  to  give  thought  and 
proper  time  of  preparation  for  the  series  of  lec- 
tures which,  more  than  a  year  ago,  I  was  invited 
to  deliver  on  the  Dodge  foundation  by  your 
alluring  secretary — Mr.  Stokes.  Knowing  as  I  did 
that  it  was  foolish  for  me  to  accept  Mr.  Stokes's 
invitation,  and  knowing  that  whenever  the  time 
came  for  me  to  perform  my  promise  it  would  cer- 
tainly be  the  most  inconvenient  time  in  the  year, 
I  nevertheless  yielded  weakly,  and  agreed  to  come 
and  say  something  about  the  duties  of  citizenship. 
Of  course  I  could  not  anticipate  that  an  earthquake 
would    throw    additional    responsibilities    on   the 

3 


4  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

War  Department;  but  previous  experiences  ought 
to  have  taught  me  that  something  would  happen 
to  make  it  altogether  inconvenient  and  almost 
impossible  for  me  to  comply  with  a  promise  so 
easily  given  but  with  such  difficulty  performed. 
Still,  here  I  am,  and  if  what  I  have  to  say  to  you 
proves  to  be  trite  or  for  other  reasons  lacking  in 
interest,  I  hope  you  will  bear  with  me  and  at- 
tribute it  to  the  lack  of  preparation.  I  have 
worried  over  these  lectures  a  good  deal,  and  have 
cast  about  to  know  what  plan  for  the  development 
of  the  subject  I  could  properly  pursue  which  might 
be  of  assistance  to  the  young  men  who  are  about 
to  enter  upon  what  I  hope  will  be  useful  lives  in 
doing  what  they  ought  to  do  to  make  this  country 
better  and  to  vindicate  its  form  of  government 
and  its  capacity  for  progress  and  development 
toward  higher  civilization.  I  met  President  Had- 
ley  in  St.  Louis,  and  he  suggested  that  I  look  at 
the  subject  from  the  four  standpoints  from  which, 
in  my  personal  experience,  I  have  had  to  look  at 
public  matters.  He  thought  that  this  would  give 
me  the  advantage  of  testifying  as  a  witness  quali- 
fied by  opportunities  for  observation,  whether  the 
opportunities   were   improved   or  not.      Acquies- 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  5 

cing,  as  I  always  do,  in  the  wisdom  of  his  sugges- 
tions, I  have  therefore  taken  for  the  four  lectures 
which  I  am  to  deliver  the  following  subjects: 

I.  The  duties  of  citizenship  viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  a  recent  graduate  of  a  university. 

II.  The  duties  of  citizenship  viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  a  judge  on  the  bench. 

III.  The  duties  of  citizenship  viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  colonial  administration. 

IV.  The  duties  of  citizenship  viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  national  executive. 

In  taking  up  the  first  of  these  heads  for  dis- 
cussion I  hope  I  may  be  pardoned  for  calling 
attention  to  a  fact  that  has  not  escaped  general 
observation,  that  there  are  few  conditions  of  mind 
more  exalted,  more  comforting,  more  complacent, 
than  that  of  the  members  of  the  Senior  class  of 
a  great  university  like  this.  The  struggle  upward 
from  the  humility  of  Freshman  year,  through  the 
irresponsibility  and  audacity  of  Sophomore  year, 
the  budding  sense  of  superiority  of  Junior  year, 
to  the  beatific  appreciation  of  his  own  importance 
in  supporting  the  dignity  of  the  university  that 
every  Senior  has,  are  well-known  phases  in  col- 
lege life.    The  step  downward  that  has  to  be  taken 


6  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

from  the  altitude  of  Senior  year  to  the  sense  of 
insignificance  that  comes  quickly  to  the  ordinary 
graduate  in  the  year  succeeding  his  college  life, 
adds  much  to  his  usefulness  as  a  member  of  the 
community  which  he  is  about  to  enter.  It  restores 
his  sense  of  proportion  as  to  the  position  that  he 
fills  in  society,  which,  in  the  epitome  of  life  that 
a  four  years'  course  at  a  university  is,  had  some- 
what distorted  his  views  of  the  extent  of  the  de- 
mand which  there  would  be  for  his  presence  and 
services  in  the  community  at  large. 

Of  course  this  humbling  change  from  the  esti- 
mate of  the  college  world  to  the  estimate  of  the 
world  at  large  has  a  greater  effect  upon  the  men 
who,  when  they  leave  college,  are  thrown  upon 
their  own  resources  and  are  obliged  to  earn  their 
own  living,  than  upon  those  who  have  money 
enough  and  are  not  dependent  upon  the  assistance 
of  others,  or  upon  the  recognition  of  their  ability 
by  employers,  by  congregations,  by  clients,  or  by 
patients.  This  is  one  of  the  great  disadvantages 
of  being  born  wealthy.  The  truth  is,  the  wealthy 
young  man,  in  winning  his  way  to  a  useful  place 
in  the  community,  has  to  struggle  much  more  and 
has  to  exhibit  a  moral  courage  much  greater  than 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  7 

that  of  the  poor  man,  if  he  would  make  a  real 
success  in  life  and  justify  his  existence  as  a  citi- 
zen. The  young  man  most  to  be  congratulated 
is  he  who  has  been  given  an  education  as  thorough 
and  as  useful  as  he  himself  wishes  to  make  it, 
and  then  under  the  spur  of  necessity  enters  upon 
a  life  of  work  without  the  temptation  to  lack 
of  effort  and  idleness,  or  to  dilettanteism,  or  to 
pure  pleasure,  which  a  competence  always  creates. 
The  great  accumulations  of  wealth  that  we  have 
witnessed  during  the  present  generation  are,  of 
course,  of  much  benefit  to  the  community  in  the 
promotion  of  art,  of  music,  of  charity,  and  of 
great  educational  institutions,  as  well  as  in  the 
good  they  do  in  the  prosecution  of  industry,  the 
cheapening  of  the  cost  of  production,  and  the 
carrying  on  of  the  great  enterprises  that  are 
needed  to  make  real  material  and  intellectual 
progress;  but,  in  my  judgment,  in  no  one  respect 
can  wealth  be  made  more  useful  from  now  on 
than  in  the  support  of  young  men  who  are  will- 
ing to  devote  their  attention  to  politics  and  public 
matters,  to  assume  official  responsibilities,  to  fol- 
low and  preserve  the  public  weal,  and  by  reason 
of  their  independence  of  salaries  or  office  to  ex- 


8  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

ercise  the  beneficent  influence  of  disinterested 
patriotism  and  attention  to  public  affairs.  There 
is  such  a  class  in  England,  which  has  done  won- 
ders for  their  politics  and  the  high  tone  of  their 
public  men.  When  it  comes  to  be  understood  in 
this  country,  and  impressed  on  the  persons  to 
whom  it  applies,  that  the  man  who  is  wealthy 
enough  to  relieve  him  from  any  anxiety  about 
supporting  his  family  owes  it  to  society  to  devote 
his  attention  to  public  affairs,  and  that  one  who 
does  not  do  so  is  violating  his  duty,  a  great  step 
will  have  been  taken  in  elevating  our  politics. 
I  think  this  influence  has  already  shown  itself 
in  many  directions ;  but  with  the  increased  wealth 
of  this  generation  the  influence  of  this  class  ought 
to  become  greater  and  greater.  Of  course  I  would 
not  eliminate  from  our  community  what  I  shall 
hereafter  refer  to  at  considerable  length,  to  wit: 
the  motive  for  gain  and  accumulation  of  money, 
which  is  the  main-spring  of  nearly  all  the  material 
improvement  which  has  been  so  marked  in  this 
country ;  but  in  such  a  hoped-for  change  of  motive 
among  the  wealthy  young  men  as  I  have  de- 
scribed we  are  not  likely  so  to  reduce  the  motive 
for  accumulation  in  the  community  at  large  as 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  9 

to  affect  injuriously  our  financial  and  material 
progress. 

So  much  for  the  wealthy  young  man.  The  poor 
young  man  has  to  earn  his  own  living,  but  his 
attention  to  politics  is  likely  to  be  much  greater 
in  the  early  years  of  his  business  or  professional 
life,  when  he  has  only  one  to  support,  than  when 
he  takes  unto  himself  a  wife,  and  brings  into 
the  world  a  family  which  gradually  absorbs  all 
his  energy  and  takes  all  his  time  in  earning 
money  enough  to  provide  for  its  wants.  There 
is  a  period  of  ten  or  fifteen  years  during  which 
all  college  graduates,  poor  as  well  as  rich,  have 
time  enough  and  energy  enough  and  ought  to 
have  interest  enough  to  attempt  to  make  the  poli- 
tics of  the  neighborhood  in  which  they  live  better ; 
and  it  is  to  this  period  and  its  obligations  that 
I  wish  particularly  to  direct  my  remarks  this 
evening. 

The  training  in  political  economy  and  sociology, 
and  other  scientific  studies  likely  to  affect  one's 
political  views  which  are  pursued  in  a  university 
curriculum,  tends  to  certainty  and  severity  of 
view  with  respect  to  the  issues  of  the  day.  As 
parties  and  public  men  fail  to  square  with  the 


10  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

views  thus  formed,  there  develops  in  the  mind 
of  the  young  graduate  a  spirit  of  criticism  and 
impatience  that  the  Government  is  so  stupidly 
run,  and  with  so  little  understanding  of  the 
fundamental  rules  upon  which  all  public  affairs 
ought  to  be  conducted.  While  I  was  in  college 
it  happened  that  my  father  was  in  the  national 
administration,  and  I  can  remember  with  dis- 
tinctness my  dissatisfaction  with  his  views  of 
public  affairs  and  my  impatience  that  he  did  not 
seem  to  value  as  fully  as  I  thought  he  ought  the 
importance  of  pursuing  the  up-to-date  principles 
that  should  govern  the  policy  to  be  pursued  by 
public  men.  Now,  the  step  down  from  Senior 
year  to  a  struggle  for  a  living,  which  I  have 
already  referred  to,  has  a  healthy  tendency  in 
moderating  this  certainty  and  severity  of  view 
formed  in  the  lecture-room  and  in  the  abstract 
study  of  political  science.  In  such  view  the 
graduate  is  apt  to  ignore  the  obstruction  by  reason 
of  friction  in  the  operation  of  natural  laws.  He 
is  apt  to  ignore,  as  a  negligible  quantity,  the 
necessary  effect  upon  the  political  policies  of  the 
existence  of  popular  prejudices  and  popular  emo- 
tions.    He  is  apt  to  treat  man  as  a  peculiarly 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  11 

intelligent  animal,  buying  exactly  where  he  can 
buy  cheapest,  and  selling  exactly  where  he  can 
sell  at  the  highest  price;  patronizing  classes  and 
nations  without  respect  to  personal  feelings  toward 
them,  and  moved  by  purely  business  considera- 
tions, and  those  which  ought  to  influence  him  if 
he  properly  considers  his  welfare.  Now,  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  that  the  professor  who  instructs, 
and  who  is  a  man  of  the  world,  does  not  know 
the  lights  and  shadows  that  should  be  put  into 
the  picture  of  actual  and  real  political  and 
economic  conditions,  so  as  to  modify  the  rigidity 
of  the  lines  laid  down  by  the  strict  and  theoreti- 
cal rules  which  he  teaches;  but  the  students 
ordinarily  are  much  better  able  to  master  the 
main  principles  than  their  complicated  variation 
and  modification,  due  to  intervening  causes. 
Those  they  must  learn  by  actual  experience.  The 
tendency  in  my  own  case,  and  I  think  in  that 
of  most  graduates  of  my  time,  was  toward  the 
laissez  faire  doctrine  that  the  least  interference 
by  legislation  with  the  operation  of  natural  laws 
was,  in  the  end,  the  best  for  the  public;  that  the 
only  proper  object  of  legislation  was  to  free 
the  pathway  of  commerce  and  opportunity  from 


12  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

the  effect  of  everything  but  competition  and  en- 
lightened selfishness;  and  that  that  being  done, 
the  Government  had  discharged  all  of  its  proper 
functions.  When  I  graduated  we  looked  upon 
the  Post-office  Department  of  the  Government  with 
great  suspicion.  X\e  felt  that  it  was  a  depart- 
ure from  proper  principles,  and  that  it  seemed 
to  offer  a  pernicious  example  and  suggestion  of 
the  extension  of  governmental  interference  and 
initiative  into  fields  which  ought  to  be  covered 
altogether  by  private  enterprise.  I  do  not  know 
what  may  be  taught  in  this  respect  now,  and 
I  am  bound  to  say  that  I  think  these  principles, 
which  I  may  seem  to  have  spoken  of  in  a  light 
way,  f  are  still  orthodox  and  still  sound,  if  only 
the  application  of  them  is  not  carried  to  such  an 
extreme  as  really  to  interfere  with  the  public 
welfare.  Experience  will  show  that  there  are 
fields  of  business  action  which  the  Government 
can  better  cover  than  private  enterprise ;  and  there 
are  also  fields  over  which,  because  of  probability 
of  abuse  by  private  enterprise,  the  Government 
should  assume  control,  not  by  way  of  initiation 
and  administration  but  by  way  of  effective  regu- 
lation.    This  topic,  however,  involves  too  many 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  13 

considerations  to  justify  its  discussion  further  to- 
night. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are,  in  addition  to 
those  of  the  laissez  faire  school,  a  few  graduates  of 
universities  whose  substratum  of  common  sense 
and  whose  sense  of  proportion,  with  reference  to 
things  as  they  are,  are  so  lacking,  and  whose  poetic 
and  emotional  temperament  is  so  overwrought, 
that  they  are  led  to  contemplate  only  the  injus- 
tice and  the  abuses  that  occur  under  the  existing 
social  order,  and  fail  utterly  to  note  the  tre- 
mendous advance,  the  immense  progress  which  has 
been  made  under  the  present  guaranties  of  life,  lib- 
erty, and  property ;  who  yearn  for  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent system  and  radical  change,  in  which  men 
are  to  be  governed  solely  by  love  and  not  by  any 
motive  of  gain.  In  their  eyes  selfishness  can 
never  be  enlightened,  and  they  finally  acquire  a 
state  of  mind  so  morbid  that  the  only  happiness 
they  have  is  the  contemplation  of  human  misery 
as  an  argument  for  the  immediate  abandonment 
of  the  principles  lying  at  the  basis  of  modern 
society.  When  such  theories  proceed  from  men 
who  have  really  suffered,  men  to  whom  equality 
of  opportunity  seems  to  have  been  denied,  men 


14  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

who  live  under  a  weight  of  misfortune  and  pov- 
erty and  disease  and  the  other  ills  that  flesh  is 
heir  to,  there  ought  to  be  much  sympathy  with 
their  feeling.  It  is  entirely  natural  that  they 
should  be  lacking  in  the  sense  of  proportion  which 
a  man  not  so  oppressed  may  have  in  respect  to 
the  advantages  of  our  present  social  and  economic 
system.  !  But  when  one  encounters  a  graduate  of 
a  university,  of  means  and  opportunity  for  public 
usefulness,  who  allows  his  emotional  side  to  over- 
come  his  judgment  so  that  he  develops  into  a 
parlor  socialist,  without  really  understanding  any- 
thing about  the  real  springs  of  material  and  in- 
tellectual progress  in  this  world,  then  we  have 
a  result  with  which  it  is  difficult  to  be  patient. 
I  think  this  class  is,  for  the  time,  on  the  in- 
crease, but  I  am  glad  to  think  that  among  edu- 
cated men  the  class  is  only  that  of  faddists  and 
will  fade  away  as  the  Millerites  did.  The  spec- 
tacle of  men  who  enjoy  all  the  luxuries  of  life, 
with  trained  servants  and  costly  establishments  of 
all  kinds,  declaiming  against  the  social  order  and 
the  injustice  done  to  the  poor  and  suffering  in 
the  community,  is  not  one  to  attract  the  sympathy 
of  sensible  men.     The  truth  is  that  an  argument 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  15 

in  favor  of  a  first  cause,  or  a  divine  plan  of  the 
universe,  finds  no  better  or  stronger  illustration 
than  in  the  progress  of  the  world  under  the 
impulse  of  men  toward  personal  freedom  and  the 
right  of  property.  The  right  of  property  has 
played  quite  as  important  a  part  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  human  race  as  the  right  of  personal 
liberty.  Indeed,  the  two  rights  are  so  associated 
in  the  struggle  which  man  has  had  to  make  in 
taking  himself  out  of  the  category  of  the  lower 
animals  and  lifting  himself  to  his  present  material 
and  spiritual  elevation  that  it  is  hard  to  separate 
them  in  a  historical  discussion.  After  man  be- 
came his  own  master,  the  next  step  in  his  progress 
was  the  conception  and  establishment  of  the  right 
of  private  property.  When  he  began  to  live  in  a 
social  state  with  his  fellows,  he  recognized,  dimly 
at  first,  but  subsequently  with  greater  clearness, 
that  the  laborer  should  have  and  enjoy  that  which 
his  labor  produced.  As  his  industry  and  self- 
restraint  grew,  he  made  by  his  labor  not  only 
enough  for  his  immediate  necessities,  but  also  a 
surplus  which  he  was  able  to  save  for  use  in  aid 
of  future  labor.  By  use  of  this  surplus,  the 
amount  which  each  man's   labor  would   produce 


16  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

was  thereafter  increased.  As  the  advantage  of 
the  principle  that  the  laborer  should  enjoy  his 
own  product  came  to  be  recognized,  so  it  came 
to  be  at  a  later  time  equally  well  recognized  that 
he  whose  savings  from  his  own  labor  increased 
the  product  of  another's  labor  was  entitled  to 
enjoy  and  share  in  the  joint  result;  and  the  ad- 
justment of  their  respective  shares  was  the  first 
settlement  of  the  ever-recurring  controversy  be- 
tween labor  and  capital.  What  one  had  the  full 
right  to  enjoy  he  had  the  right  to  give  to  an- 
other to  enjoy;  and  so  it  happened  that  when  a 
man  was  about  to  die  he  assumed,  and  was  ac- 
corded, the  privilege  of  giving  to  those  whom  he 
wished  to  enjoy  it  that  which  was  his.  As  the 
natural  parental  instinct  dictated  provision  for 
those  whom  he  had  brought  into  the  world,  it  first 
became  custom  and  then  law  that  if  he  made  no 
express  disposition  of  that  which  he  had  the  right 
to  enjoy,  it  should  become  the  property  of  those 
for  whose  existence  he  was  responsible.  In  this 
way  the  capital  saved  in  one  generation  was  re- 
ceived by  succeeding  generations,  and  its  accumu- 
lation for  producing  purposes  was  made  much 
more  probable.     The  certainty  that  a  man  could 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  17 

enjoy  as  his  own  that  which  he  produced  or  saved, 
and  that  it  could  be  enjoyed  after  his  death  by 
those  to  whom  he  was  bound  by  ties  of  natural 
affection,  furnished  the  strongest  motive  for  in- 
dustry beyond  what  was  merely  adequate  to  obtain 
the  bare  necessities  of  life,  and  was  the  chief 
inducement  to  economy  and  self-control.  The 
institution  of  private  property  with  all  its  inci- 
dents is  what  has  led  to  the  accumulation  of 
capital  in  the  world.  Capital  represents  and 
measures  the  difference  between  the  present  con- 
dition of  society  and  that  which  prevailed  when 
men  lived  by  what  their  hands  would  produce 
without  implements  or  other  means  of  increasing 
the  result  of  their  labor;  that  is,  between  the 
utter  barbarism  of  prehistoric  ages  and  modern 
civilization.  Without  it  the  whole  world  would 
still  be  groping  in  the  darkness  of  the  tribe  or 
commune  stage  of  civilization,  with  alternating 
periods  of  starvation  and  plenty,  and  no  happiness 
but  that  of  gorging  unrestrained  appetite.  Capi- 
tal increased  the  amount  of  production.  The 
cheaper  the  cost  of  production,  the  less  each  one 
had  to  work  to  earn  the  absolute  necessities  of 
life,  and  the  more  time  he  had  to  earn  its  com- 


18  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

forts.  As  the  material  comforts  increased,  the 
more  possible  became  happiness,  and  the  greater 
the  opportunity  for  the  cultivation  of  the  higher 
instincts  of  the  human  mind  and  soul.  This 
material  progress  in  the  human  race,  covering 
cycles  of  time  in  the  slow  process  of  evolving 
as  an  essential  principle  in  the  development  of 
the  race  the  right  of  private  property,!  was  at- 
tended by  violence  and  fraud  and  cruelty  and 
oppression;  but  in  the  end  it  had  a  profound 
educational  effect  upon  the  human  race  and  estab- 
lished in  the  human  heart  and  soul  the  virtues 
that  have  made  man  the  superior  being  that  he  is. 
The  struggle  implanted  in  the  human  breast  the 
virtue  of  providence,  the  restraint  of  the  appetite 
of  the  present,  in  order  that  there  may  be  left 
that  with  which  the  future  can  be  enjoyed;  the 
lesson  that  the  pains  and  thoroughness  with  which 
a  work  is  done  increase  the  product  and  enlarge 
the  source  of  future  supply ;  and  finally,  the  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  that  the  only  peaceable  way 
by  which  a  man  can  really  enjoy  the  fruits  of 
his  own  labor  is  to  recognize  this  as  a  right  of 
every  other  man.  This  struggle  thus  gave  us  the 
virtues  of  providence,  of  industry,  and  of  honesty, 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  19 

and  with  these  basic  elements  of  character  all 
the  other  traits  and  virtues  that  we  admire  in  man 
have  been  developed.  Of  course,  I  would  not 
ignore  or  minimize  the  influence  of  religion  on 
the  development  and  uplifting  of  human  char- 
acter ;  but  the  industrial  virtues  I  have  described, 
when  instilled  by  hard  experience,  certainly  offer 
a  greater  opportunity  for  the  effective  working  of 
religious  influences.  |  The  whole  human  race  has 
had  to  fight  its  way  upward  to  modern  civilization 
and  its  beneficent  incidents  by  a  struggle  so 
arduous  and  so  long  continued  that  we  can  no 
more  appreciate  it  than  we  can  realize  thejtime 
taken  to  create  the  geological  formations.  This 
operation  of  the  natural  laws,  leading  -to  the  won- 
derful development  of  modern  society  out  of  the 
prehistoric  man,  we  are  told  that  man  must  change 
by  law ;  that  we  must  abolish  the  right  of  property 
and  the  motive  for  gain,  divide  up  the  wealth, 
and  distribute  it  according  to  the  sense  of  justice 
of  the  socialist  committees  of  organization  and 

control.  j 

While  we  may  find  a  few  shining  examples  of 
such  dreamers  and  impracticable  and  morbid 
thinkers  among  the  graduates  of  universities  of 


20  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

this  country,  we  may  be  confident  that  substan- 
tially all  the  sane  graduates  of  our  universities 
will  set  their  faces  like  flint  against  the  spirit  of 
any  such  foolish  doctrine ;  and  that  they  will  find 
their  chief  reasons  for  discrediting  the  premises 
and  the  conclusions  advanced  in  favor  of  socialism 
in  the  wholesome  principles  of  political  economy 
and  sociology  which  they  have  imbibed  at  the  most 
formative  period  of  their  lives  and  characters  in 
the  lecture  and  recitation  rooms  of  their  alma 
mater. 

But  now,  assuming  the  political  and  economic 
sanity  of  the  recent  college  graduate — not,  I  think, 
a  violent  assumption — what  should  be  expected  of 
him  politically  ?  Well,  in  the  first  place  he  ought 
to  learn  where  the  polling-place  is  in  his  ward 
and  precinct  where  he  can  cast  a  ballot.  I  think 
it  might  be  rather  humiliating  to  some  graduates 
of  several  years'  standing  if  a  close  examination 
were  made  into  their  knowledge  of  this  simple 
fact;  and  if  the  investigation  were  to  proceed 
farther,  to  find  out  where  the  primaries  and  the 
preliminary  political  meetings  for  organization 
are  held,  the  amount  of  ignorance  in  respect  to 
these  details  on  their  part  would  be  still  more 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  21 

embarrassing.  Perhaps,  however,  before  they  go 
either  to  the  polls  or  to  the  primaries  they  ought 
to  select  a  party.  I  know  there  is  a  disposition 
on  the  part  of  the  free-born  American  graduate 
from  an  institution  of  learning,  full  of  admira- 
tion for  independence  of  thought  and  a  desire  to 
maintain  his  independence  of  action,  to  hold  him- 
self aloof  from  party  regularity  and  vote  for  the 
best  men  if  he  can  find  them,  and  thus  teach 
the  party  organization  that  it  must  beware  of 
the  influence  of  the  independent  voter.  I  think 
this  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  recent  college 
graduate  is  much  modified  as  he  acquires  ex- 
perience and  a  knowledge  of  conditions.  Whether 
he  will  become  a  Republican  or  a  Democrat  or 
a  Mugwump  will  depend  on  many  circumstances. 
He  may  yield  to  the  natural  tendency  to  inherit 
his  politics,  and  so  become  a  Democrat  or  a  Re- 
publican because  his  father  was.  lie  may  find  that 
his  views  upon  the  main  issue  between  the  parties 
at  the  particular  time  when  he  comes  first  to 
exercise  his  franchise  and  discharge  his  electoral 
duty  are  such  that  on  principle  he  selects  one 
of  the  parties  and  thereafter  identifies  himself 
with  it.    He  may  find  that  his  pecuniary  interests 


22  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

are  affected  by  the  success  or  defeat  of  a  particu- 
lar party,  and  select  the  one  or  the  other  in 
accordance  with  those  interests.  Whatever  turns 
him  in  the  direction  of  one  party  or  the  other, 
he  will  after  a  while  learn  that  there  is  much 
to  he  said  in  favor  of  party  regularity  if  that  be 
not  carried  to  an  extreme.  The  modern  govern- 
ment of  a  people  of  80,000,000,  reaching  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  and  from  Canada  to 
Mexico,  is  very  complicated.  It  has  long  been  a 
principle,  enunciated,  but  "  honored  more  in  the 
breach  than  in  the  observance,"  that  [the  less  gov- 
ernment has  to  do,  the  less  government  there  is, 
the  better  for  the  people ;  but  in  recent  years  there 
have  been  so  many  functions  which  it  is  impossible 
for  private  business  to  maintain  and  undertake 
that  even  the  most  orthodox  of  the  laissez-faire 
school  must  admit  that  the  legitimate  functions  of 
the  modern  government  constitute  it  a  very  com- 
plex machine.  The  difficulties  of  its  management 
are  greatly  increased  if,  instead  of  leaving  the 
control  to  one  man,  as  in  Russia,  or  to  a  small 
group  of  men,  as  in  the  ancient  aristocracy,  we 
commit  its  control  to  all  males  over  the  age  of 
twenty-one,  and  call  it  a  popular  government.    The 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  23 

real  advantage  of  a  popular  government,  in  se- 
curing the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number, 
is  that  experience  has  shown  that  individuals  and 
classes  of  men  of  reasonable  intelligence  are  better 
able  to  look  after  their  own  interests  or  those 
of  their  class,  and  secure  equality  of  opportunity 
and  equal   protection  for  themselves  or   persons 
similarly  situated,  if  they  are  given  a  voice  in  the 
government,  than  if  this  duty  is  left  to  some  one 
else,  however  altruistic.     How  is  it  possible  so  to 
reduce  the  varying  wishes  and  views  of  the  entire 
population  of  80,000,000   people,  or  14,000,000 
adult  males,  to  one  resultant  executive  force,  which 
shall  carry  on  this  complex  machine  of  government 
effectively,  as  it  should  be  carried  on  in  the  public 
interest  and  for  the  public  weal  ?    The  problem  has 
been  solved  in  the  growth  and  the  establishment  of 
popular  government  by  the  institution  of  parties 
among  the   people.      A   useful    party   cannot  be 
formed  unless  those  who  are  members  of  it,  with  a 
sense  of  responsibility  for  the  successful  and  unob- 
structed continuance  of  the  administration  by  that 
party,  yield  their  views  on  the  less  important  and 
less  essential  principles,   and  unite  with  respect 
to  the   main  policies  for  which  the  party  is  to 


24  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

become  responsible.  The  resultant  solidarity  of 
opinion  is  necessary  to  secure  unity  of  action. 
The  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  successful 
operation  of  the  Government  must  furnish  a 
power  of  cohesion  which  shall  prevent  the  break- 
ing off  from  the  party  of  a  sufficient  number  of 
its  members  to  make  its  arm  nerveless  and  to 
take  away  from  it  its  power  of  initiative  and 
action.  That  party  is  the  more  efficient  party, 
therefore,  in  which  the  members  are  more  nearly 
united  on  the  great  principles  of  governmental 
policy.  I  do  not  for  a  moment  intend  to  de~ 
preciate  the  good  effect  of  having  in  the  com- 
munity persons  not  affiliated  with  parties,  whose 
unbiased  judgment  will  lead  them  to  vote  some- 
times for  one  party  and  sometimes  for  another; 
for  it  may  well  be  that  the  power  of  cohesion  in  a 
party,  growing  out  of  its  traditions  or  the  desire 
for  office  or  some  other  motive  not  the  highest, 
shall  lead  it  into  apparent  unanimity  upon  a  course 
detrimental  to  the  Government  and  from  which 
nothing  can  save  the  Government  but  the  with- 
drawal of  support  by  the  independent  voter.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  and  however  useful  the  inde- 
pendent voter  may  be,  the  existence  of  parties, 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  25 

their  maintenance,  and  their  discipline  are  essen- 
tial to  the  carrying  on  of  any  popular  government. 
The  difficulty  with  the  politics  of  France  has  fre- 
quently been  the  inability  of  the  leaders  to  form 
parties  large  enough  to  maintain  a  government. 
There  are  too  many  small  groups,  and  the  ad- 
ministration is  thus  likely  continually  to  change. 
It  is  difficult  to  classify  parties  in  this  country 
as  conservative  and  radical,  because  the  facts  do 
not  always  justify  such  a  classification;  but  gener- 
ally it  will  be  found  that  the  more  efficient  party 
in  administration  is  the  more  progressive  and 
more  affirmative — more  radical,  therefore,  in  its 
policies.  The  opposing  party  is  usually  negative, 
declining  to  initiate  new  reforms,  looking  back  to 
a  probably  non-existent  condition  of  simplicity 
and  purity  and  honesty  in  public  affairs,  and 
offering  in  effect,  when  successful,  a  conservative 
and  do-nothing  administration.  Now,  young  men 
will  select  their  parties,  other  things  being  equal, 
according  to  the  natural  tendencies  of  their  minds. 
Some  men  are  in  favor  of  progress,  affirmative 
action,  and  radical  reforms — a  change  of  the  exist- 
ing arrangements  for  something  better.  Other 
men  naturally   prefer  the  ills  we   have  than  to 


26  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

fly  to  those  we  know  not  of,  and  with  their  con- 
servative tendencies  they  will  find  a  home  in  the 
more  conservative  party.  The  independent,  re- 
fusing to  subordinate  himself  to  the  views  of 
either  party,  first  votes  for  one  ticket  and  then  for 
another,  and  thus  seems  to  exercise  a  more  de- 
cisive influence  than  the  regular  members  of 
either  party.  Indeed,  it  is  true  that  as  a  mass 
the  independent  voters  are  generally  of  great  im- 
portance and  influence  for  the  betterment  of  po- 
litical and  governmental  conditions.  As  indi- 
viduals, in  the  exercise  of  individual  influence  and 
to  accomplish  useful  purposes,  they  do  not  play 
so  important  a  part.  If  a  man  goes  into  public 
life  and  wishes  to  secure  an  influence  for  good, 
he  may  properly  be  chary  of  breaking  his  political 
ties  with  the  party  of  his  affiliation,  because  the 
only  real  opportunity,  the  only  real  avenue  that 
he  can  follow  to  accomplish  permanently  useful  re- 
sults is  by  influencing  the  course  and  policy  of  his 
party.  As  this  is  a  party  government,  and  as 
measures  are  controlled  by  party  decisions,  the  real 
progress  must  be  made  along  party  lines ;  and  if  a 
man  separates  from  his  party  he  loses  altogether 
any  influence  he  may  exert  in  determining  those 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  27 

policies.  I  do  not  at  all  advocate  that  a  man  should 
adhere  to  party  against  high  principle  and  con- 
viction, but  this  life  is  all  a  series  of  compromises 
by  which  little  by  little,  and  step  by  step,  progress 
toward  better  things  is  made.  All  the  good  in 
the  world  cannot  be  attained  at  one  breath.  We 
must  achieve  what  we  can  at  the  time  we  can, 
and  must  let  other  aims  and  objects  of  the  highest 
good  abide  a  different  opportunity  for  their  at- 
tainment. While,  therefore,  we  may  not  agree 
with  all  the  principles  adopted  into  legislation  or 
into  executive  policy  by  a  party  with  which  we  are 
affiliated,  we  should  ordinarily  not  destroy  our 
usefulness  and  power  for  good  in  influencing  the 
party  in  the  right  direction,  by  withdrawing  from 
it  on  issues  not  the  most  important,  if,  on  the 
whole,  we  believe  that  more  good  can  come  from 
its  success  than  from  that  of  its  opponent. 

Having  selected  his  party  and  found  his  poll- 
ing-place and  the  place  for  the  meeting  of  the 
primaries,  and  having  ascertained  who  are  the 
men  in  the  precinct  and  the  ward  who  exercise 
influence  over  the  people,  the  graduate  of  a  uni- 
versity who  takes  life  as  seriously  as  he  should, 
who  appreciates  his  responsibility  as  a  citizen,  will 


28  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

spend  as  much  time  as  he  can  in  learning  the  local 
situation;  in  becoming  acquainted  with  the  pre- 
cinct and  ward  leaders,  in  consulting  them  as  far 
as  he  can,  in  making  himself  acquainted  not  only 
with  the  well-to-do  and  well-educated  persons  in 
his  precinct  and  ward,  but  also  with  the  laborers, 
the  artisans,  the  store-keepers,  the  saloon-keepers, 
in  order  that  he  may  understand  what  are  the  con- 
trolling influences  in  the  primaries  and  elections 
of  that  precinct  and  ward.  This  will  bring  him, 
doubtless,  into  contact  with  some  people  whom  he 
would  not  wish  to  have  as  permanent  associates 
and  companions.  It  is  not  generally  elevating 
to  associate  with  saloon-keepers,  and  yet  there  is 
a  word  to  be  said  upon  this  subject  and  with 
respect  to  them.  There  are  among  them  honest, 
hard-working  men,  rising  early  in  the  morning 
and  staying  up  late;  in  the  great  cities  they  are 
the  proprietors  of  the  social  clubs  of  the  neigh- 
borhood for  the  poor  people,  and  naturally  they 
exercise  a  very  considerable  influence  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  public  matters  that  go  on  among  the 
wage-earners  and  persons  of  small  means.  The 
college  graduate  is  not  made  of  sugar,  and  he 
ought  to  be  sufficiently  strong  to  resist  any  evil 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  29 

influence  which  might  some  time  arise  from  such 
political  associations  if  they  were  to  become  per- 
manent. But  if  a  college  graduate  is  to  exert 
any  influence  at  all  for  good  among  the  people, 
especially  when  as  a  young  man  he  can  exert  his 
influence  only  or  chiefly  through  personal  con- 
tact, he  must  convince  those  whose  votes  he  wishes 
to  control  and  use  for  good  purposes  that  he  does 
not  hold  himself  above  them;  that  he  is  a  real 
democrat  and  recognizes  that  he  has  only  one  vote, 
as  they  each  have  but  one  vote,  and  that  he  has 
no  right  to  exercise  influence  over  them  except 
as  his  opportunities  for  information  and  his 
knowledge  of  public  affairs  justify  him  in  speak- 
ing on  such  subjects.  He  must  stand  on  an 
exact  equality  with  men  of  less  education  and  less 
advantages  and  must  familiarize  himself  with  the 
exact  conditions  that  prevail  in  local  municipal 
and  broader  politics.  In  many  respects  the  col- 
lege graduate  has  as  much  to  learn  from  the 
workingman  and  the  business  man  who  have  not 
enjoyed  a  college  education  as  they  have  to  learn 
from  him.  It  cannot  but  broaden  his  sympathies 
and  make  him  understand  his  country  and  its 
needs  with  more  certainty  if  he  associates  in  po- 


30  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

litical  and  other  ways  with  those  who  make  up 
the  large  body  of  our  American  citizens.  He  will 
cease  by  such  association  to  assume  the  attitude 
of  a  dilettante  closet  critic,  and  will  understand 
the  motives  and  the  emotions  and  the  real  feel- 
ings of  the  great  mass  of  the  American  people. 
As  I  have  already  suggested,  there  is  a  tendency 
on  the  part  of  those  having  a  college  education, 
of  the  class  known  as  "  the  scholar  in  politics," 
to  ignore  the  element  of  sentiment,  of  patriotic 
emotion,  and  to  assume  that  everything  ought  to 
be  and  will  be  ultimately  determined  by  nicely 
reasoned  processes  like  those  which  are  often 
postulated  in  the  class-room  of  the  professor  of 
economics  and  political  economy.  Now,  without 
in  the  slightest  minimizing  the  importance  of 
straight  thinking  in  accordance  with  the  great 
principles  of  political  economy  and  sociology,  it 
seems  to  me  wise  to  emphasize  the  necessity  for 
college  men  who  wish  to  be  useful  in  political  life 
to  go  into  the  humblest  political  movements  and 
find  out  the  views,  the  prejudices  it  may  be,  and 
the  real  needs  of  their  less  fortunate  fellow-citi- 
zens. 

The  tendency  of  recent  years  toward  reorgan- 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  31 

ization  and  the  economic  use  of  means  and  in- 
strumentalities to  secure  efficiency,  shown  in  the 
production  of  material  things,  has  manifested 
itself  in  politics  also,  and  has  led  to  much  more 
effective  political  machines,  in  municipal  politics 
particularly,  than  ever  existed  before.  There  are  | 
in  the  governments  of  many  municipalities  strik- 
ing examples  of  the  use  of  official  patronage  to 
establish  and  maintain  a  machine  from  which  it 
is  impossible  for  the  voters  of  the  party  to  wrest 
its  power,  and  which  for  a  time  seems  to  be  able 
by  the  thoroughness  of  its  organization  even  to 
defy  the  people  at  the  polls.  Every  once  in  a 
while  the  people  rise  and  defeat  the  machine 
ticket  and  then  pat  themselves  upon  the  back  and 
retire  again,  while  the  machine  in  a  short  time 
resumes  its  power.  It  is  idle  to  hope  that  the 
people  may  be  roused  at  every  political  contest 
and  defeat  machine  slates  unless  there  are  counter 
organizations  made  up  of  younger  men  actuated 
by  the  disinterested  patriotic  desire  to  select  only 
good  candidates  for  office.  Such  young  men,  and 
among  them  certainly  ought  to  be  all  university 
graduates,  should  maintain  an  organization  the 
year  round,  so  that  they  may  keep  in  touch  with 


32  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

the  continually  changing  local  situation  and  call 
upon  members  for  action  when  action  is  neces- 
sary. Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  good 
government.  The  professional  machine  politician 
is  always  at  work,  and  he  can  be  defeated  and 
discouraged  only  by  an  organization  which  can 
be  called  together  like  the  Minute  Men,  and  may 
know  how  and  when  to  strike  for  good  government. 
Politics  ought  to  be  neither  distasteful  nor  de- 
grading, and  men  who  enter  them  for  the  purpose 
of  keeping  them  pure  and  making  them  better 
are  engaged  in  the  highest  duty.  "We  must  meet 
the  conditions  as  they  exist.  In  this  country,  where 
nearly  every  adult  male  has  a  vote  and  suffrage 
is  exercised  by  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men, 
suitable  and  proper  means  must  be  used,  adapted 
to  reach  the  better  nature  of  the  electors  and 
rouse  them  to  their  duty  to  secure  good  govern- 
ment by  the  exercise  of  their  suffrages  at  the 
primary  and  at  the  polls.  Organization  by  good 
men  is  one  of  the  suitable  and  proper  means  for 
achieving  this  purpose.  When  the  people  know 
that  agencies  exist  through  which  they  can  secure 
good  government,  they  will  be  much  more  certain 
to  take  an  interest  and  support  such  agencies.     I 


A  GRADUATE  OF  A  UNIVERSITY  33 

would  not,  of  course,  exclude  men  of  any  age 
from  the  burden  of  carrying  on  this  work  of  or- 
ganization, but  young  men  must  naturally  be  more 
active  in  it. 

It  will  be  entirely  natural,  especially  for  those 
who  are  well-to-do  and  do  not  need  to  earn   a 
livelihood,  to  become  candidates  for  public  office, 
and  the  more  that  such  men  offer  themselves  for 
office  the  better  for  good  government.     Of  course, 
in  the  ideal  condition  of  things  the  office  should 
seek  the  man;  but  we  do  not  have  an  ideal  con- 
dition of  things,  and  we  never  will  have.    Politics 
are  practical,  and  while  it  may  often  occur  that 
in  an  organization  of  good  men,  for  the  purpose  of 
lifting  politics  out  of  the  slough,  a  man  may  bo 
drafted  for  office  against  his  will,  it  is  exceptional. 
There  is  no  real  objection  to  a  good  man's  seeking 
office  when  he  feels  himself  competent  to  discharge 
its  duties,  has  a  high  ideal  as  to  how  they  ought 
to  be  discharged,   and  a  commendable  ambition 
to  serve  his  country.     Certainly,  men  less  quali- 
fied and  with  less  high  ideals  will  seek  it,  and 
why  should  the  public  lose  the  benefit  of  a  per- 
sonal motive  on  his  part  to  gratify  his  desire  to 
be  of  use? 


34  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

But  I  have  talked  longer  than  I  ought.  I  close 
by  urging  upon  the  men  of  Yale  their  duty,  im- 
mediately upon  leaving  college,  to  take  a  deep 
interest  in  local  politics,  to  learn  what  they  are, 
to  study  the  actual  conditions  that  prevail  with 
respect  to  the  electorate,  and  to  affiliate  themselves 
with  local  political  movements  in  order  that  they 
may  find  for  themselves  opportunities  for  useful- 
ness. If  the  country  is  not  to  avail  itself  of  the 
intelligence,  patriotism,  and  disinterestedness  of 
its  educated  men,  and  especially  of  those  who  can 
devote  a  large  part  of  their  time  to  public  matters, 
it  will  lose  the  benefit  of  the  progress  that  we  hope 
we  are  making  by  extended  higher  education. 


II 


THE  DUTIES  OF  CITIZENSHIP  VIEWED  PROM  THE 
STANDPOINT  OF  A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen  of  Yale: 

The  subject  for  this  evening  is  the  second  on 
the  list — The  Duties  of  Citizenship  from  the 
Standpoint  of  a  Judge  on  the  Bench. 

I  went  on  the  State  bench  when  I  was  twenty- 
nine  years  old,  and  served  three  years;  subse- 
quently, at  thirty-two,  I  went  upon  the  Federal 
bench,  where  I  served  for  nine  years.  As  I  look 
back,  I  am  sure  that  my  knowledge  of  law  when 
I  went  on  the  bench  was  very  limited.  I  commend 
to  those  who  have  an  opportunity  a  term  on  the 
bench  as  one  of  the  best  law  schools  I  know.  It 
is  true  that  in  this  way  one  gets  his  legal  educa- 
tion at  the  expense  of  the  public,  and  tries  his 
"  'prentice  hand  "  on  the  litigants  as  victims ;  but 
after  a  time,  if  he  is  at  all  apt  and  anxious  and 
earnest,  the  public  makes  a  good  judge  of  him. 
If  he  can  be  kept  on  the  bench  after  that,  he 

35 


36  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

sometimes  makes  a  better  judge  than  an  older 
man,  with  much  more  experience  at  the  bar;  for 
there  are  men,  and  not  a  few,  who  succeed  ad- 
mirably at  the  bar  as  counsel  and  advocates,  but 
who,  when  elevated  to  the  position  of  a  judge, 
cannot  drop  the  habits  of  a  lifetime  or  forget 
that  they  are  advocates.  Still,  I  do  not  urge  the 
appointment  of  young  men  to  judicial  positions, 
and  do  not  favor  a  system  by  which  judges  are 
given  their  judicial  learning  after  they  are  called 
to  the  bench. 

The  first  duty  of  a  citizen  which  is  impressed 
on  the  mind  of  the  judge  of  first  instance,  who  has 
to  try  the  usual  class  of  cases,  is  his  duty  to  sit 
on  the  jury,  and  to  spend  the  time  necessary, 
when  properly  drawn,  to  make  up  the  tribunal 
which  the  common  law  and  the  Constitution  make 
necessary  for  the  determination  of  issues  of  fact 
in  common-law  civil  cases  and  criminal  cases. 
Service  on  the  jury  is,  of  course,  just  as  much 
a  part  of  one's  public  duty  as  the  obligation  to 
pay  taxes  under  the  law,  or  the  obligation  to  re- 
spond to  the  call  of  the  Government  to  act  in  the 
posse  of  the  sheriff,  or  to  testify  as  a  witness  when 
duly  summoned,  or  to  shoulder  a  gun  when  drafted 


A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH  37 

into  the  military  service  in  an  emergency.  The 
success  of  a  jury  system  is  utterly  impossible 
among  a  people  who  are  not,  on  the  average,  intel- 
ligent and  above  undue  influences.  Hence  a  jury 
system  must  tend  to  failure  if  the  intelligent  and 
honest  men  of  the  community  regard  the  service 
as  such  a  burden  that  they  evade  it  by  excuses, 
and  leave  for  selection  only  the  unintelligent  and 
those  subject  to  venal  motives. 

On  a  pure  question  of  fact,  controverted  by  wit- 
nesses on  both  sides  and  presented  to  the  jury  with 
full  argument  and  the  comment  of  the  court,  a  jury 
of  intelligent,  conscientious  men  is  a  most  satisfac- 
tory tribunal.  Taken  from  different  walks  of  life, 
containing  within  the  panel  men  of  experience  in 
many  directions,  united  they  make  up  a  tribunal 
of  men  of  force,  who  are  quite  as  well  able  as  the 
judge  to  make  their  inferences  from  the  evidence 
as  it  has  been  drawn  out  by  examination  and 
cross-examination,  and  reach  a  conclusion  of  fact, 
not  necessarily  unerring,  but  of  very  consider- 
able accuracy  and  certainty.  But  I  beg  to  impress 
upon  you  the  fact  which  seems  frequently  to  have 
been  lost  sight  of,  especially  in  legislation  with 
respect  to  the  procedure  of  State  courts,  that  the 


38  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

tribunal  contemplated  by  the  common  law  was  not 
the  jury  alone,  but  it  was  the  court  and  jury, 
and  that  the  ultimate  decisions  rested  not  on  the 
verdict  of  the  jury  only,  but  on  the  verdict  as 
approved  by  the  judge  holding  the  court.  The 
method  of  reaching  a  conclusion  at  common  law 
was  after  the  hearing  of  the  evidence  and  argu- 
ment of  counsel,  and  after  a  charge  by  the  court; 
in  which  the  court  did  not  hesitate  to  assist  the 
jury  in  commenting  on  the  evidence,  even  to  the 
point  of  intimating  an  opinion  as  to  the  proper 
conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  the  evidence.  Thus 
constituted,  the  jury  and  the  court  do  make  an 
admirable  tribunal,  if  the  intelligence  of  the  jury 
is  equal  to  the  average  intelligence  of  the  com- 
munity at  large.  There  has  been  a  dangerous 
tendency  in  the  legislation  in  the  Southern  and 
Western  States  in  regard  to  the  control  which  the 
judge  in  the  court  may  exercise  over  the  jury. 
His  instructions  to  the  jury  are  frequently  lim- 
ited to  a  written  charge,  made  before  the  argu- 
ment of  counsel  on  the  facts,  in  which  he  is  not 
permitted  to  comment  in  any  way  on  the  facts  or 
to  assist  the  jury,  except  by  laying  down  abstract 
and  hypothetical  questions  of  law.    In  other  words, 


A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH  39 

the  legislation  has  tended  to  eliminate  the  judge 
as  far  as  possible  from  the  influence  he  was  wont 
to  exercise  in  the  decision  of  the  tribunal  as  it 
was  when  the  Constitution  made  it  an  essential 
part  of  our  judicial  system.  With  this  change 
from  the  old  common-law  use  of  a  jury,  much 
greater  power  is  vested  in  the  panel  than  ever 
before,  and  in  many  instances  the  power  is  abused, 
because  the  jury  takes  it  into  its  head  that  it  is 
not  only  a  tribunal  to  arrive  at  a  decision  upon 
a  sharp  issue  of  facts  presented  by  the  evidence, 
but  that  it  is,  in  a  sense,  a  legislator  to  reach 
natural  justice  without  much  regard  to  the  law; 
and  in  suits  against  corporations,  and  in  many 
instances  in  spite  of  the  absence  of  legal  liability 
by  the  corporation,  it  will  act  as  an  almoner  of 
its  charity,  and  mulct  it  in  a  large  sum  to  meet 
an  alleged  liability,  which  in  fact  and  in  law  does 
not  exist.  Under  such  circumstances  the  obliga- 
tion of  the  good  citizen  to  discharge  his  duty  as  a 
juror  is  even  of  higher  importance  than  when  the 
power  of  the  jury  was  more  subject  to  the  con- 
trol of  the  experienced  judge  who  presided  over 
the  trial  of  which  it  is  a  part.  The  truth  is  that 
the  law  is  not  so  carefully  followed,  and  property 


40  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

rights  and  other  rights  are  not  so  well  safeguarded, 
and  criminals  are  not  punished  with  the  same  cer- 
tainty as  formerly  in  communities  in  which  the 
jury  has  had  the  reins  thrown  on  its  back,  and 
practically  been  given  a  discretionary  power  in 
its  decisions  that  was  wholly  wanting  under  the 
common-law  system. 

The  common-law  system  is  preserved  in  its 
purity  in  the  Federal  courts.  There  the  judge  still 
maintains  the  power  which  he  had  at  common  law, 
and  which  he  exercises  in  English  courts  to-day, 
not  of  controlling  or  directing  the  verdict,  but  of 
aiding  and  instructing  the  jury  in  respect  to  the 
decision  which  it  should  reach,  in  commenting  on 
the  evidence,  and  in  taking  much  more  complete 
control  of  the  trial  than  a  judge  in  a  Western 
State  is  now  permitted  to  exercise.  And  what  is 
the  result?  It  is  seen  that  everybody  in  the 
South  and  West  who  is  anxious  to  have  a  law 
enforced,  and  is  anxious  to  have  the  guilty  pun- 
ished under  it,  devises  ways  and  means  by  which 
the  offence  can  be  denounced  under  a  Federal 
statute  and  brought  for  trial  into  the  Federal 
courts.  There  it  is  known  that  if  a  man  is  guilty 
he  probably  will  be  convicted.     There  it  is  under- 


A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH  41 

stood  that  the  wiles  of  the  criminal  lawyer,  his 
dramatic  resources,  and  the  obstructing  policy  of 
delays  can  ordinarily  not  prevent  the  law  from 
overtaking  the  offender.  Of  course  this  distinc- 
tion between  State  and  Federal  courts  in  the  gen- 
eral estimation  does  not  obtain  in  the  older  and 
more  conservative  States  of  the  East,  where  there 
is  usually  less  departure  from  the  common-law 
system  of  trial  than  in  the  newer  and  more  radical 
jurisdictions.  The  jury  system  ought  never  to  be 
abolished  in  an  Anglo-Saxon  country  in  criminal 
cases  or,  indeed,  in  sharp  and  simple  issues  of 
fact  in  civil  cases,  though  there  are  many  compli- 
cated issues  of  fact  involved  in  accounts  and  other 
matters  (as,  for  instance,  the  question  of  inven- 
tion in  a  patent)  with  respect  to  which  a  jury  trial 
is  not  at  all  useful.  The  great  advantage  of  a 
jury  trial  in  a  popular  government  is  that  it  gives 
the  public  confidence  that  in  criminal  cases  which 
involve  the  liberty  or  life  of  a  citizen  and  the 
public,  he  can  be  assured  that  there  will  intervene 
in  the  consideration  of  his  cause  twelve  impartial 
and  indifferent  persons,  selected  by  lot,  as  a  tribu- 
nal to  decide  upon  his  guilt ;  and  that  danger  from 
prejudice  against  the  accused  whom  the  Govern- 


42  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

ment  is  prosecuting,  which  might  be  suspected  in 
a  judiciary  appointed  by  the  Executive  of  the 
Government,  will  be  eliminated.  The  jury  sys- 
tem popularizes  the  court,  and  gives  the  people  to 
understand  that  they  have  not  only  an  interest,  but 
also  a  part  in  the  administration  of  justice. 

A  jury  system  requires  a  panel  of  individuals 
who  are  able  to  assume  a  judicial  attitude  on  the 
issue  between  two  litigants,  and  to  banish  from 
their  minds  all  influence  of  prejudice  of  any  char- 
acter with  respect  to  the  parties  or  the  subject 
matter.  This  judicial  quality,  this  sense  of  fair 
play,  has  been  developed  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind, 
more  than  in  any  other  race  perhaps,  by  long 
training  in  jury  trials.  Among  the  Latin  people 
the  power  of  suppressing  one's  prejudices  and 
one's  preconceived  notions  in  sitting  as  judges  to 
determine  an  issue  of  fact,  even  under  the  sanc- 
tion of  an  oath,  seems  not  natural,  and  is  hard  to 
develop.  This  quality  is,  of  course,  better  devel- 
oped, other  things  being  equal,  in  a  man  of  edu- 
cation than  in  one  who  has  not  enjoyed  that  ad- 
vantage ;  and  this  suggests  another  reason  why  the 
obligation  on  the  educated  man  is  greater  than  it 
is  in  the  case  of  his  less  fortunate  fellow-citizens. 


A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH  43 

One   of  the  great  reasons  why  jury   duty   is 
evaded  by  good  men  is  because  of  the  delay,  and 
unnecessary  delay,  that  arises  in  the  disposition 
of  causes  in  jury  trials  in  our  courts.     In  trying 
to  understand  what  the  common-law  trial  was,  we 
may  well  look  to  the  English  method  of  disposing 
of  cases.     Under  that  system  the  lawyers  are  so 
well  trained  and  the  judge  so  skilled  in  pushing 
the  trial  that  cases  which  take  in  this  country  three 
and  four  weeks  are  disposed  of  there  in  a  day  or 
a  day  and  a  half.     Lawyers  are  not  there  per- 
mitted to  introduce  myriads  of  witnesses  on  the 
same  point  and  to  be  guilty  of  great  prolixity  in 
their  examinations  or  in  their  discussions  before 
the  jury.     The  main  and  substantial  points  are 
dwelt  upon,   both   in   the  evidence  of   witnesses 
and  in  the  argument  of  counsel,  and  the  counsel 
are  not  permitted  to  divert  the  attention  of  the 
jury   to  irrelevant  circumstances   and  to   absurd 
theories.     The  judge  retains  control  and  pushes 
the  trial,   both   because   it   usually  results   in   a 
juster  judgment  and  also  because  neither  the  time 
of  the  court  nor  the  time  of  the  jury  ought  to  be 
taken  up  with  the  histrionic  exhibitions  of  coun- 
sel for  either  side,  or  with  the  dragging,  tedious, 


44  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

and  often  irrelevant  and  unnecessary  cross-exam- 
inations of  supposedly  important  witnesses.  A 
juryman  sitting  in  a  panel  and  listening  to  such 
drawn-out  controversy,  which  as  a  business  man 
he  thinks  ought  to  he  settled  in  the  course  of  a  day 
or  a  day  and  a  half,  will,  the  next  time  he  is  called 
upon,  naturally  seek  to  avoid  a  duty  which  is  not 
a  pleasure,  but  a  mere  bore  by  reason  of  the  pro- 
lixity of  the  hearing. 

A  most  important  principle  in  the  success  of  a 
judicial  system  and  procedure  is  that  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice  should  seem  to  the  public  and  the 
litigants  to  be  impartial  and  righteous,  as  well  as 
that  it  should  actually  be  so.  Continued  lack  of 
public  confidence  in  the  courts  will  sap  their  foun- 
dations. A  careful  and  conscientious  judge  will, 
therefore,  strive  to  avoid  every  appearance  from 
which  the  always  suspicious  litigants  may  suspect 
an  undue  leaning  toward  the  other  side.  He  will 
give  patient  hearing  to  counsel  for  each  party,  and 
however  clear  the  case  may  be  to  him  when  stated, 
he  will  not  betray  his  conclusion  until  he  has  heard 
in  full  from  the  party  whose  position  cannot  be 
supported.  More  than  this,  it  not  infrequently 
happens,  however  clear  his  mind  in  the  outset, 


A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH  45 

that  argument,  if  he  has  not  a  pride  of  first  opin- 
ion that  is  unjudicial,  may  lead  him  to  change 
his  view. 

This  same  principle  is  one  that  should  lead 
judges  not  to  accept  courtesies  like  railroad  passes 
from  persons  or  companies  frequently  litigants  in 
their  courts.  It  is  not  that  such  courtesies  would 
really  influence  them  to  decide  a  case  in  favor  of 
such  litigants  when  justice  required  a  different 
result ;  hut  the  possible  evil  is  that  if  the  defeated 
litigant  learns  of  the  extension  of  such  courtesy  to 
the  judge  or  the  court  by  his  opponent  he  cannot 
be  convinced  that  his  cause  was  heard  by  an  in- 
different tribunal,  and  it  weakens  the  authority 
and  the  general  standing  of  the  court. 

I  knew  of  one  judge  who  indignantly  declared 
that  of  course  he  accepted  passes,  because  he  would 
not  admit,  by  declining  them,  that  such  a  little 
consideration  or  favor  would  influence  his  de- 
cision. But  in  the  view  I  have  given  above  a 
different  ground  for  declining  them  can  be  found 
than  the  suggestion  that  such  a  courtesy  would 
really  influence  his  judgment  in  a  case  in  which 
the  railroad  company  giving  the  courtesy  was  a 
party. 


46  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

Another  duty  of  citizenship  which  impresses 
itself  on  the  mind  of  the  judge  is  that  of  main- 
taining the  supremacy  of  the  law.  Ours  is  a 
government  by  law;  not  by  rule  of  thumb,  but 
by  rules  of  conduct  which  have  equal  applica- 
tion to  all.  Any  exception  to  the  equal  operations 
of  the  law  upon  individuals  is  necessarily  most 
injurious  to  the  future  operation  of  that  law  for 
the  public  good,  because  one  exemption  from  its 
operation  is  certain  to  lead  to  others.  The  public 
detriment  arising  from  violations  of  law,  followed 
by  immunity  from  prosecution  or  punishment,  can 
hardly  be  overstated.  It  is;  of  course,  the  duty  of 
the  legislator  in  the  enactment  of  laws  to  con- 
sider the  ease  or  difficulty  with  which,  by  rea- 
son of  popular  feeling  or  popular  prejudice,  laws 
after  being  enacted  can  be  enforced.  Nothing 
is  more  foolish,  nothing  more  utterly  at  vari- 
ance with  sound  public  policy  than  to  enact  a 
law  which,  by  reason  of  the  conditions  surround- 
ing the  community  in  which  it  is  declared  to  be 
law,  is  incapable  of  enforcement.  Such  an  in- 
stance is  sometimes  presented  by  sumptuary  laws, 
by  which  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  is  pro- 
hibited   under    penalty    in    localities    where    the 


A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH  47 

public  sentiment  of  the  immediate  community 
does  not  and  will  not  sustain  the  enforcement  of 
the  law.  In  such  cases  the  legislation  is  usually 
the  result  of  agitation  by  people  in  the  country 
who  are  determined  to  make  their  fellow-citizens 
in  the  city  better.  The  enactment  of  the  law 
comes  through  the  country  representatives,  who 
form  a  majority  of  the  legislature;  but  the  en- 
forcement of  the  law  is  among  the  people  who  are 
generally  opposed  to  its  enactment,  and  under  such 
circumstances  the  law  is  a  dead  letter.  This  re- 
sult is  the  great  argument  in  favor  of  so-called 
local  option,  which  is  really  an  instrumentality 
for  determining  whether  a  law  can  be  enforced 
before  it  is  made  operative.  In  cases  where  the 
sale  of  liquor  cannot  be  prohibited  in  fact,  it  i9 
far  better  to  regulate  and  diminish  the  evil  than 
to  attempt  to  stamp  it  out.  By  the  enactment  of 
a  drastic  law  and  the  failure  to  enforce  it  there 
is  injected  into  the  public  mind  the  idea  that  laws 
are  to  be  observed  or  violated  according  to  the  will 
of  those  affected.  I  need  not  say  how  altogether 
pernicious  such  a  loose  theory  is.  General  Grant 
said  that  the  way  to  secure  the  repeal  of  a  bad 
law  was  to  enforce  it.     But  when  the  part  of  the 


48  FOUR  ASPECTS   OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

community  which  enacts  the  law  is  not  the  part 
affected  by  its  enforcement,  this  is  not  a  prac- 
ticable method.  The  constant  violation  or  neglect 
of  any  law  leads  to  a  demoralized  view  of  all  laws, 
and  the  choice  of  the  laws  to  be  enforced  then 
becomes  as  uncertain  as  the  guess  of  a  political 
executive  in  respect  to  public  opinion  is  likely  to 
make  it.  Such  a  policy  constantly  enlarges  in  the 
community  the  class  of  men  with  whom  the  sacred- 
ness  of  law  does  not  exist. 

Last  June,  in  this  very  hall,  I  delivered  an 
address  on  the  administration  of  the  criminal  law, 
and  attempted  to  point  out  its  present  inadequacy 
and  to  explain  the  reasons  why  there  was  such  a 
discouraging  failure  to  bring  violators  of  the  law 
to  justice  by  reason  of  the  defects  of  our  criminal 
procedure. 

I  observe  in  the  public  prints  a  report  that  a 
distinguished  graduate  of  this  university,  in  his 
well-founded  indignation  at  the  present  malad- 
ministration or  non-administration  of  the  criminal 
law  in  this  country,  is  represented  as  justifying, 
or  at  least  as  palliating,  lynch  law.  I  confess  this 
seems  to  me  to  be  a  most  dangerous  doctrine.  It 
is  doubtless  true  that  the  instances  of  lynch  law 


A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH  49 

have  been  prompted  and  greatly  increased  by  the 
defects  and  failures  to  punish  malefactors  under 
the  lawful  procedure  in  courts.  But  it  is  far  bet- 
ter that  violators  of  the  law  go  free  than  that  we 
should  introduce  such  a  barbarous  and  altogether 
demoralizing  and  uncontrollable  practice;  first, 
because  it  too  often  results  in  the  punishment  of 
innocent  persons,  and,  second,  because  it  makes 
chaos  of  our  government  by  law.  ^Nothing  can  be 
more  detrimental  to  the  public  interest  than  for 
any  part  of  the  people  to  take  the  law  into  their 
own  hands.  Assembled  in  a  mob,  they  soon  lose 
their  conscience;  the  spirit  of  the  mob,  different 
from  that  of  any  individual,  enters  the  crowd ; 
and  the  desire  for  vengeance  prompts  it  to  acts 
of  violence  and  of  the  most  fiendish  cruelty. 

The  only  way  to  remedy  the  evil  in  which  lynch 
law  is  supposed  to  find  a  justification  is  by 
strengthening  the  hands  of  the  court  by  repealing 
the  absurd  laws  that  give  to  every  defendant  too 
much  chance  to  escape  just  punishment  and  make 
it  as  difficult  as  possible  for  the  State  to  secure  a 
conviction.  It  should  be  provided,  as  has  been 
recommended  a  number  of  times,  that  no  error  in 
the  record  of  a  criminal  case  carried  to  the  Court 


50  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

of  Appeals  should  lead  to  the  reversal  of  the  judg- 
ment, unless  it  affirmatively  appears  that  but  for 
the  error  a  different  verdict  would  have  been 
reached.  In  the  United  States  courts  and  in  the 
courts  of  England  for  many  years  there  never 
was  an  appeal  allowed  in  a  criminal  case.  In  the 
trials  in  the  Federal  court  and  in  England  there 
is  little  opportunity  for  playing  a  game,  pursued 
by  counsel  for  the  defence  in  all  courts  where  the 
judge  retains  but  little  control  of  the  trial.  He 
is  not  permitted  to  befuddle  the  jury  and  defeat 
a  verdict  of  conviction  by  a  dramatic  diversion  of 
the  minds  of  the  jury  from  the  real  points  at 
issue;  nor  is  he  permitted,  after  an  adverse  ver- 
dict, to  reverse  the  judgment  of  the  trial  court  by 
fine  and  technical  points  which  it  was  impossible, 
in  the  hurry  of  the  trial,  for  the  court  below  to 
consider  or  properly  to  decide.  The  emotional 
rand  untrue  doctrine  that  it  is  better  that  ninety- 
nine  guilty  men  should  escape  than  that  one  inno- 
^  cent  man  should  be  punished  has  done  much  to 
make  our  criminal  trials  a  farce.  This  has  come 
about  through  popular  demand,  without  a  full 
understanding  on  the  part  of  the  legislatures  and 
the  people  as  to  its  logical  effect.     And  now  that 


A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH  51 

the  result  has  come,  we  find  a  popular  tumult 
on  the  other  side  in  favor  of  lynch  law  because 
the  present  criminal  procedure  is  inadequate  to 
punish  men  who  should  be  punished. 

It  is  possible  that  a  remedy  for  this  evil  may 
be  worked  out  through  a  development  of  the  pres- 
ent accumulation  of  wealth  and  the  abuses  which 
have  followed  the  concentration  of  much  wealth  in 
comparatively  few  hands  and  corporations.  The 
arrogance  that  this  has  produced  on  the  part  of 
some  successful  men  has  led  them  to  a  willingness 
to  evade  and  escape  the  laws  of  the  country  in 
their  pursuit  of  wealth.  In  what  I  had  to  say 
last  night  in  regard  to  the  right  of  property  and 
the  benefit  to  the  world  from  the  accumulation  of 
capital,  I  hope  I  will  not  be  thought  to  be  blind 
to  the  abuses  that  grow  out  of  the  possession  of 
great  wealth  by  unscrupulous  men.  Such  men  are 
quite  apt  to  think  that  laws  are  not  made  for  the 
purpose  of  restraining  them ;  that  they  are,  in  a 
sense,  above  the  law;  that  they  can,  by  the  em- 
ployment of  able  and  acute  counsel,  who  shall  ad- 
vise just  what  the  law  is  and  just  how  its  effects 
can  be  evaded,  find  some  way  to  be  exempt  from 
its  restrictions. 


52  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

The  Sherman  anti-trust  law  was  a  law  enacted 
for  the  purpose  of  preventing  agreements  in  re- 
straint of  interstate  trade  and  preventing  monop- 
oly of  trade.  It  was  directed  to  the  restraint  of 
the  so-called  trusts — associations  of  men  who,  by 
use  of  various  instrumentalities,  constituted  a  sys- 
tem of  unfair  and  oppressive  trade,  and  induced 
and  finally  compelled  the  public  to  deal  with  them 
rather  than  with  their  helpless  competitors.  The 
definition  of  the  offences  described  in  the  statute, 
and  the  proof  of  the  circumstances  tending  to 
make  out  the  offence,  are  both  difficult;  and  in 
meeting  prosecutions  against  wealthy  corporations 
and  their  managers  under  this  law,  as  well  as 
under  the  law  with  reference  to  interstate  com- 
merce forbidding  discriminations  and  secret  re- 
bates in  favor  of  certain  shippers,  the  protection 
which  has  long  been  afforded  to  the  ordinary 
criminal,  and  the  leniency  with  which  the  law 
treats  an  accused,  have  inured  greatly  to  the  bene- 
fit of  these  wealthy  and  powerful  violators  of  the 
law.  With  the  immense  fund  at  their  disposal 
for  the  purpose  of  defence  they  are  able  to  secure 
the  most  acute  counsel  and  make  every  possible 
point  that  the  looseness  of  the  present  criminal 


A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH  53 

procedure  affords.  When  this  occurred  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  ordinary  criminal  the  public 
seemed  incapable  of  being  roused  to  the  necessity 
for  a  change.  But  now  that  the  defects  in  the 
procedure  and  administration  of  the  criminal  la-w- 
are becoming  apparent  in  the  case  of  the  arrogant 
and  wealthy  violators  of  the  law  who  seem  to  defy 
the  public,  we  may  hope  that  a  full  examination 
will  be  made  into  the  reason  why  it  is  that,  if  a 
man  has  money  enough  to  employ  counsel,  it  is  so 
difficult  to  bring  him  to  justice  under  the  system 
now  in  force. 

May  the  day  be  speeded  in  the  reform  of  our 
administration  of  the  criminal  law !  If  the  escape 
of  the  ordinary  criminal  leads  to  lynch  law,  what 
may  we  expect  from  the  escape  of  the  wealthy 
malefactor  in  these  days  of  unrest,  when  the  com- 
plaints against  accumulated  wealth  and  its  abuses 
are  so  many,  if  the  administration  of  the  criminal 
law  fails  as  to  them? 

I  do  not  for  a  moment  sympathize  in  the  view 
that  everything  is  corruption  and  that  all  the 
picture  should  be  dark  and  black.  I  think  that 
we  have  had  during  our  last  ten  years  a  decade 
of  prosperity  never  before  known  in  the  history 


54  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

of  the  country;  and  in  the  immense  sums  which 
have  been  made  for  the  benefit  of  all  of  us  in  the 
prosperity  that  we  all  have  enjoyed,  there  are 
some  who  have  taken  a  larger  and  an  ill-gotten 
share,  and  who  are  attempting  to  maintain  and 
increase  this  share  by  methods  that  should  be 
reprobated  and  punished.  It  is  impossible  that 
such  abuses  should  not  have  occurred  in  prosperity 
so  unprecedented.  But  the  abuses  furnish  but  lit- 
tle reason  for  condemnation  of  the  system  unless 
it  can  be  first  shown  that  the  prosperity  has  not 
been  general,  and  unless  it  can  be  further  shown 
that  the  abuses  of  the  concentration  of  much 
wealth  in  a  few  hands  are  a  greater  detriment 
than  the  general  prosperity  is  an  advantage. 

Just  at  present  we  have  been  passing  through 
a  siege  of  attacks  upon  our  social  and  political 
system  by  gentlemen  whom  President  Koosevelt 
has  properly  denominated  "the  men  with  the 
muck-rake."  Either  in  order  that  they  may  sell 
their  articles,  or  in  order  that  for  political  pur- 
poses they  may  stir  a  spirit  of  unrest,  they  ex- 
aggerate the  abuses  thought  to  exist  in  political 
and  business  life,  and  give  a  distorted  and  there- 
fore  a   false   view   of   actual  conditions.      They 


A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH  55 

attribute  corrupt  motives  without  proof;  and  by 
dwelling  only  on  instances  of  evil  they  destroy,  or 
they  seek  to  destroy,  the  sense  of  proportion  of 
their  hearers  and  readers  in  a  general  condemna- 
tion of  society  at  large.  There  never  was  a  time 
in  the  history  of  the  world  when  there  was  more 
virtue,  more  charity,  more  sense  of  brotherly  affec- 
tion, than  there  is  to-day.  Could  anything  be 
more  inspiring  than  the  bounteous  outgiving  of 
money,  provisions,  and  labor  for  the  benefit  of 
our  fellow-men  which  was  evoked  by  the  dis- 
aster in  California?  The  truth  is  that  the  de- 
nunciations of  these  muck-rakers  have  reached 
such  a  point  that  a  reaction  has  set  in,  and  they 
find  that  their  wares  are  not  as  salable  as  they 
were.  They  have  overdone  the  picture.  Their 
eyes  have  become  so  dulled  that  they  have  not 
realized  that  everything  they  say  now  is  dis- 
counted by  the  public,  as  born  not  of  a  desire  to 
present  a  just  picture  but  of  a  desire  to  be  sensa- 
tional at  the  expense  of  fact  and  the  expense  of 
justice.  It  is  true  that  there  is  corruption  in 
many  of  our  munipical  corporations.  It  is  true 
also  that  there  are  on  foot  substantial  and  most 
encouraging   movements   to   stamp   out  the   evils 


56  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

that  we  find  in  municipal  government.  It  is  not 
true  that  there  is  great  corruption  in  the  national 
Government.  Nearly  every  one  who  has  been  at 
all  familiar  with  the  national  capital  for  the  last 
twenty-five  years  will  admit  that  there  has  been  a 
very  decided  improvement  in  the  disinterestedness 
of  legislators  and  the  freedom  from  venality  and 
corruption  in  Congress  and  the  executive  depart- 
ments. But  let  us  concede  that  there  have  been 
abuses,  as  undoubtedly  there  have  been,  both  in 
the  violations  of  law  by  great  corporations,  rail- 
way and  others,  and  in  the  evasion  of  the  anti- 
monopoly  and  trust  laws.  What  is  the  remedy? 
Is  it  not  in  taking  measures  to  secure  the  main- 
tenance and  supremacy  of  the  law?  Is  it  not  in 
looking  to  those  instrumentalities  by  which  such 
violations  can  be  properly  suppressed  and  pun- 
ished ?  And  that  is  what  so  emphasizes  the  im- 
portance of  an  improvement  in  our  judicial  pro- 
cedure in  this  respect.  Any  suggestion  that  there 
is  any  other  remedy  possible  for  preventing  the 
violation  of  law  and  these  abuses  than  in  the  train- 
ing and  character  of  the  individual  on  the  one 
hand,  and  in  the  strengthening  of  the  arm  of  the 
law  by  judicial  procedure  on  the  other,  is  vicious. 


A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH  57 

It  may  be  that  the  enormous  accumulation  of 
money  in  the  hands  of  individuals  has  reached 
such  a  point  that  it  would  be  wiser  to  discourage 
its  continuance  in  the  next  generation  by  heavy 
inheritance  tax  or  other  methods.  Neither  at  the 
common  law  nor  under  the  Constitution  is  the 
right  of  descent  of  property  or  of  devising  it  an 
inalienable  right.  It  depends  wholly  upon  the 
legislature;  and,  therefore,  if  the  legislature  sees 
fit  to  give  a  tendency  to  the  division  of  fortunes, 
and  prevent  their  greater  accumulation  in  the  sec- 
ond and  third  generations,  there  are  ample  means 
under  our  present  system,  and  without  revolution- 
ary methods,  to  bring  this  about. 

But  the  point  which  I  wish  most  to  emphasize 
at  present  is  the  duty  of  every  one  to  discoun- 
tenance at  every  point  the  suggestion  that  the 
people  at  large  are  to  take  the  law  into  their  own 
hands,  and  accomplish  something  by  violent  and 
radical  illegal  action  against  the  evils  of  present 
society.  This  would  be  to  substitute  chaos  for 
a  government  of  law.  Law  must  be  enforced 
through  the  lawful  executive  and  through  the 
lawfully  constituted  courts. 

I  fear  that  we  must  admit  that  there  is  not  so 


58  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

strongly  developed  among  our  people  the  reverence 
for  law  and  the  demand  for  its  enforcement  as 
there  is  among  our  Anglo-Saxon  brethren  across 
the  sea.  Personal  liberty  and  the  rights  of  prop- 
erty are  rather  more  protected  under  the  English 
system  than  under  ours.  Newspaper  libel  is  much 
rarer  in  England  than  here,  for  Englishmen  seem 
to  regard  it  as  their  duty  to  carry  such  a  case  into 
court,  and  the  newspaper  is  usually  mulcted  if  any 
license  is  taken  with  their  reputations.  In  this 
country  the  abuse  of  the  privileges  of  the  press, 
in  holding  up  to  unjust  criticism  and  sensational 
condemnation  many  respectable  members  of  the 
community,  has  reached  such  a  point  that  the  in- 
jured pass  it  over,  accept  it  as  a  burden  they  must 
bear,  and  decline  to  go  into  court.  The  delays 
that  the  courts  permit  in  working  out  the  rights 
of  a  litigant,  and  the  length  of  time  and  the  worry 
that  are  taken  up  in  litigation,  all  tend  to  frighten 
the  man  out  of  court  who  has  a  just  cause,  and  to 
make  him  feel  that  it  is  better  to  abandon  his 
cause  than  to  subject  himself  to  the  nervous  strain 
and  the  bitter  disappointment  of  trying  to  secure 
a  prompt  hearing  and  decision. 

The  remedy  for  these  defects  is  both  legislative 


A  JUDGE  ON  THE  BENCH  59 

and  executive.  The  defects  exist  less  in  the  Fed- 
eral courts,  as  I  have  explained,  than  in  the  State 
courts;  and  that  is  sufficient  to  indicate  that  the 
nearer  our  State  courts  approximate  to  the  Federal 
courts  in  procedure  and  in  the  power  of  the  judge, 
the  more  certainty  is  there  of  an  improvement  in 
the  judicial  administration  in  this  country.  The 
courts  are  the  background  of  our  civilization.  The 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  is  the  whole 
background  of  the  Government.  It  is  the  body 
to  determine  whether  Congress  is  acting  within 
its  constitutional  limitations;  to  determine  wheth- 
er the  Executive  has  exceeded  his  legal  authority. 
It  is  the  last  resort  and  the  final  tribunal.  Its 
power  rests  not  upon  its  marshals  or  its  con- 
stables, not  upon  an  army  under  its  control  or 
a  navy  whose  battleships  it  may  summon;  but 
its  power  and  precedent  rest  upon  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  fundamental  law  which  it  is  its  duty 
to  declare  and  to  preserve,  and  whicli  it  is  the 
duty  of  every  citizen  to  maintain  at  all  hazards. 
It  is  possible  for  the  intelligent  members  of  the 
community  to  bring  to  bear  their  influence  upon 
legislatures  to  reduce,  by  a  few  well-drawn  amend- 
ments to  the  existing  procedure,  the  chances  of 


60  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

escape  of  criminals  through  the  technical  meshes 
of  the  law.  It  is  possible  for  intelligent  members 
of  the  community  to  exert,  at  all  times  and  every- 
where, an  influence  against  the  frequently  ad- 
vanced proposition  that  lynch  law  is  justifiable. 
It  is  possible  to  create  among  the  good  men  of  the 
community  a  public  sentiment,  expressing  itself 
through  the  ballot-box  and  in  other  ways,  in  favor 
of  the  supremacy  of  the  law  and  in  favor  of  the 
punishment  of  wrong-doers.  The  exercise  of  such 
an  influence  is  one  of  the  highest  duties  of  citi- 
zenship. 


Ill 


THE  DUTIES  OF  CITIZENSHIP  VIEWED  FROM 
THE  STANDPOINT  OF  COLONIAL  ADMINIS- 
TRATION 

Me.  President,  and  Gentlemen  of  Yale: 

My  subject  to-night  is,  "  The  Duties  of  Citizen- 
ship from  the  Standpoint  of  Colonial  Administra- 
tion." I  shall  treat  this  subject  by  reference  to 
the  Philippine  Islands,  with  which  I  am  familiar, 
which  form  the  most  important  dependency  we 
have,  and  present  the  most  difficult  problems  for 
solution. 

The  first  Americans  to  land  in  the  Philippines 
were  the  army  and  navy,  together  with  those 
venturesome  business  spirits  that  thrive  best  in 
times  of  trouble  and  excitement,  when  the  oppor- 
tunities for  making  money  quickly  are  good.  The 
experiences  of  our  army  and  navy  with  Aguinal- 
do's  forces,  the  contempt  which  the  Filipino  army 
manifested  toward  the  American  troops  before  the 
beginning  of  hostilities  between  them,  and  the  sub- 

61 


62  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

sequent  guerrilla  warfare,  all  tended  to  create  a 
bitterness  of  feeling  on  the  part  of  our  soldiers 
toward  their  Filipino  opponents  that  could  not  but 
be  shared  by  the  Americans  who  were  on  the  is- 
lands at  that  time.  It  was  natural  that  every 
defect  and  every  weakness  of  the  Filipino  char- 
acter should  be  dilated  upon  by  the  American 
soldiers  and  by  those  who  accompanied  them. 
The  exigencies  presented  by  the  guerrilla  war- 
fare required  an  increase  in  the  American  forces, 
until  in  July,  1900,  there  were  upward  of 
65,000  American  soldiers  on  the  islands,  and  they 
were  stationed  at  500  different  posts.  Their  pres- 
ence in  the  islands  created  so  large  a  demand 
for  American  supplies  of  food  and  drink  and 
other  things,  that  the  few  American  merchants, 
the  only  ones  familiar  with  the  needs  and  demands 
of  the  American  soldiers,  found  themselves  with 
a  business  on  their  hands  that  they  could  hardly 
take  care  of.  Their  profits  were  large.  They  had 
no  need,  therefore,  to  look  for  other  trade  or 
patronage.  The  necessity  for  cultivating  the  good- 
will of  the  Filipinos  for  business  purposes  was 
wholly  absent,  and  the  fact  that  their  profitable 
patrons  were  deeply  imbued  with  hostility  and 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  63 

contempt  toward  the  native  population  put  the 
American  merchants  in  the  same  frame  of  mind. 
It  was  natural  that  the  American  newspapers, 
whose  editorial  staffs  were  composed  of  men  re- 
cently in  the  battlefield,  whose  subscribers  were 
chiefly  the  soldiers,  and  whose  advertisers  were 
the  American  merchants,  should  in  their  atti- 
tude toward  the  Filipinos  reflect  the  opinions  of 
their  readers  and  patrons.  The  American  soldier 
knew  little  of  the  Spanish  language,  and  still  less 
of  the  dialects  of  the  country — the  Tagalog,  the 
Visayan,  and  the  Ilocano.  His  opportunity  for 
communication  with  the  native  was  exceedingly 
restricted.  He  said  what  he  meant  and  meant 
what  he  said.  His  manners  were  those  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon,  abrupt  and  blunt.  The  Filipino,  on 
the  other  hand,  with  a  timidity  born  of  years  of 
subordination  under  the  Spanish  regime,  with 
the  Oriental  tendency  to  speak  that  which  his 
auditor  wishes  to  hear,  and  with  the  courtesy 
which  is  innate  in  the  race  and  has  been  increased 
by  the  Spanish  influence,  used  expressions  which, 
interpreted  by  Anglo-Saxon  standards,  were  false 
and  deceitful,  but  which,  interpreted  by  men 
who  understood  the  race,  were  nothing  more  than 


64  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

courteous  commonplace.  And  so  it  was  that  the 
American  enlisted  man,  together  with  many 
American  officers  and  merchants,  looked  upon 
every  effort  to  cultivate  the  good-will  of  the  na- 
tives as  love's  labor  lost;  and,  if  pursued  by  the 
Government,  as  likely  to  result  in  weakness  and 
to  invite  treachery. 

The  progress  of  the  army  in  subduing  the  insur- 
rection and  establishing  civil  government  enabled 
us  in  two  years  to  reduce  the  American  soldiers 
on  the  islands  from  65,000  to  about  15,000.  The 
Americans  on  the  islands,  outside  of  the  army  and 
the  civil  servants,  have  not  increased  much  in 
number  since  1900.  The  demand  for  American 
goods  and  supplies  from  merchants  on  the  islands 
has  therefore  been  much  reduced  with  the  with- 
drawal of  the  army.  The  opportunity  for  large 
profit  on  the  part  of  the  American  merchants,  so 
long  content  with  American  trade  only,  has  passed. 
The  only  possible  source  of  real  business  and  real 
trade  which  our  merchants  living  on  the  islands 
can  now  have  is  with  the  Filipino  people.  The 
promotion  of  their  material  and  intellectual  wel- 
fare will  necessarily  develop  wants  on  their  part 
for  things  which  in  times  of  poverty  they  regard 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  65 

as  luxuries,  but  which  as  they  grow  more  educated 
and  wealthier  become  necessities. 

The  cultivation  of  the  good-will  of  the  Filipinos, 
who  thus  may  be  made  good  customers,  is  the  one 
course  which  can  create  any  market  among  the 
people  on  the  islands  for  American  goods  and 
American  supplies ;  and,  if  this  be  true,  a  policy 
which  embitters  and  renders  a  whole  people  hos- 
tile to  the  American  merchants  must  necessarily 
defeat  all  hopes  of  increasing  the  American  busi- 
ness.   A  merchant  who  sneers  at  his  customer,  who 
calls  him  names,  who  turns  his  back  upon  him, 
is  not  likely  to  keep  him  long  as  a  customer.     It 
hardly  needs  a  business  man  to  see  this ;  a  layman 
may  predict  it  with  the  utmost  confidence.    Under 
these  conditions  in  the  Philippines  it  is  not  strange 
that  right  under  the  noses  of  the  American  mer- 
chants   Spanish    merchants,    English    merchants, 
German  merchants,  and  Swiss  merchants  do  busi- 
ness with  the  Filipinos.    They  are  engaged  in  sell- 
ing goods  to  the  Filipino  peoples  and  in  exporting 
their  agricultural  products  from  the  islands.    The 
American  merchants,  feeling  the  pinch  of  a  loss 
of  business,  have  been  disposed  to  charge  it  to  the 
policy  of  the  Government  in  declaring  in  favor  of 


66  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

the  policy  of  "  the  Philippines  for  the  Filipinos." 
They  have  heen  looking  for  a  scapegoat  for  their 
lack  of  success  in  business,  and  they  have  selected 
the  Government  and  its  policy  as  the  chief  object 
of  criticism. 

This  condition  of  affairs  has  been  held  up  by 
anti-imperialists  as  evidence  of  the  utter  unfit- 
ness of  the  American  to  attempt  colonial  admin- 
istration. With  the  engendering  of  this  spirit,  it 
is  urged  that  we  cannot  hope  to  create  the  belief 
among  the  Filipinos  that  we  are  attempting  to  do 
them  good,  and  that  we  ought  to  give  up  the  experi- 
ment. But  while  such  temporary  manifestations 
are  not  encouraging,  it  is  full  of  consolation  to  read 
in  the  lives  of  Lord  Macaulay  and  Lord  John  Law- 
rence and  Lord  Canning  of  the  very  great  bitter- 
ness with  which  all  their  policies  for  the  ameliora- 
tion of  the  native  Indian  were  attacked  by  the 
Englishmen  who  had  settled  in  Calcutta;  who  in 
their  supreme  self-satisfaction  regarded  the  inter- 
est of  their  class,  numbering  not  more  than  4,000 
or  5,000,  as  of  much  greater  importance  than  the 
interest  of  the  300,000,000  East  Indians. 

I  am  not,  however,  discouraged  by  this  first  at- 
titude of  the  American  merchants  in  Manila  and 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  67 

elsewhere  on  the  islands  toward  the  Filipinos,  be- 
cause a  change  to  a  more  sensible  view  is  already 
at  hand.  There  is  now  the  strongest  motive  for 
the  American  merchant  to  seek  the  good-will  of 
the  Filipinos,  in  order  to  secure  their  business.  It 
is  colossal  egotism  on  the  part  of  the  American 
who  goes  to  the  Philippines  to  suppose  that  the 
Government  of  those  islands  must  have  its  policy 
affected  solely  by  his  interests.  The  United  States 
is  attempting  a  solution  of  a  most  complex  and 
difficult  problem.  It  has  been  forced  into  the 
position  of  becoming  a  guardian  of  the  archi- 
pelago for  the  benefit  of  seven  or  eight  millions  of 
people.  It  has  felt  it  necessary  in  the  discharge  of 
this  trust  to  take  charge  of  the  islands  and  create 
a  government  and  maintain  it.  Its  only  pos- 
sible justification  for  this  course,  according  to  its 
own  traditions  and  the  principles  upon  which  its 
own  structure  rests,  is  that  the  people  of  the  islands 
are  not  now  fit  for  self-government;  that  it  owes 
a  duty  to  them  of  maintaining  a  government  until 
the  time  when  they  as  a  people,  by  actual  sharing 
in  the  government  and  by  education,  shall  become 
completely  fitted  to  run  their  own  political  affairs. 
In  other  words,  the  chief  characteristic  of  the  trust 


68  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC   DUTY 

which  we  involuntarily  assumed  is  that  we  must 
conduct  affairs  in  the  Philippines  with  a  view 
solely  to  the  interest  of  the  Filipinos. 

This  is  as  far  as  possible  from  saying  that 
Americans  may  not  go  to  the  islands,  may  not  en- 
gage in  industry  of  any  kind,  may  not  be  induced 
by  hope  of  good  profits  to  invest  as  much  capital 
as  possible  in  enterprises  tending  to  develop  their 
resources.  Such  a  course  is  in  the  interest  of  the 
islands,  and  should  be  encouraged  by  the  Filipinos 
themselves;  and  if  the  American  on  the  islands 
will  only  see  his  own  real  interest,  he  will  unite 
with  the  Government  in  an  attempt  to  conciliate 
the  Filipinos  as  far  as  possible.  It  of  course  inter- 
feres with  the  success  of  the  Government  in  con- 
vincing the  Filipinos  that  the  United  States  is 
really  not  moved  by  selfish  motives,  but  anxious  to 
promote  the  interest  of  the  Filipino  in  every  way, 
to  have  the  resident  representatives  of  that  country 
occupy  a  position  of  hostility  and  contempt  toward 
the  natives.  I  should  say,  therefore,  that  the  first 
duty  of  the  American  citizen  who  goes  to  the 
Philippine  Islands  and  lives  there  is  to  make  him- 
self as  well  acquainted  with  the  Filipinos  as  he 
can;  to  cultivate  their  good-will;  to  have  them 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  69 

understand  that  the  interests  of  the  Filipinos  are 
paramount  in  determining  the  policy  of  the  United 
States  toward  the  islands. 

The  next  class  of  citizens  whose  duties  we  may 
consider  are  the  Filipinos  themselves.  By  the 
fundamental  act  of  the  Philippine  Islands  they 
are  made  citizens  of  the  Philippines.  This  is  to 
distinguish  them  from  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  who  are  entitled  to  certain  constitutional 
privileges  for  the  exercise  of  which  the  Filipino 
is  not  ready.  With  reference  to  his  treatment  by 
every  foreign  government,  the  Filipino  occupies 
exactly  the  same  position  and  is  entitled  to  exactly 
the  same  protection  from  our  Government  as  an 
American. 

What  is  the  duty  of  the  Filipino  citizen  of  the 
Philippine  Islands  toward  the  insular  Govern- 
ment? He  owes  allegiance  to  the  Government, 
and  is  subject  to  the  duties  that  citizens  ordinarily 
owe  to  the  government  that  gives  them  protection 
and  looks  after  their  governmental  needs.  It  may 
be  admitted  that  there  are  many  Filipinos  who 
would  be  very  glad  to  have  the  rule  of  the  Ameri- 
can Government  end,  and  a  period  of  absolute 
independence  ensue.     The  people  of  the  islands 


70  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

have  no  disposition  to  come  under  Japanese  rule, 
as  has  sometimes  been  suggested.  The  truth  is, 
the  unfounded  report  that  the  United  States  ex- 
pected to  sell  the  islands  to  Japan  aroused  such 
indignation  as  to  show  that  the  people  much  pre- 
ferred the  United  States  to  Japan  as  a  guardian. 
The  poor  and  ignorant  among  the  Filipinos,  who 
number  in  all  about  ninety  per  cent,  are  not  par- 
ticularly interested  as  to  what  kind  of  a  govern- 
ment they  have,  provided  they  be  let  alone.  They 
are  easily  influenced  by  the  educated  of  their  own 
race  and  easily  aroused  to  follow  the  teachings  of 
any  Filipino  of  influence  and  standing.  But  taken 
as  a  class,  if  some  one  does  not  seek  to  excite  them 
they  are  quiet,  peaceable,  law-abiding,  and  not 
interested  in  politics  or  government. 

In  the  other  ten  per  cent,  however,  there  are 
to  be  found  educated  persons  who  deem  themselves 
entirely  fitted  to  carry  on  a  government  and  to  rule 
the  ninety  per  cent  which  I  have  described.  What 
ought  a  citizen  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  with 
these  views,  to  do  in  respect  to  the  Government? 
Legally,  of  course,  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  ought 
to  support  the  Government,  or  at  least  not  attempt 
to  overthrow  it;  but  in  the  interest  of  his  people, 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  71 

and  released  from  the  obligations  that  the  law 
imposes  upon  him,  how  ought  he  to  act?  Is  it 
necessarily  patriotism  for  him  to  plan  to  arouse 
his  people  to  an  insurrection  and  destroy  or  make 
as  difficult  as  possible  the  government  of  the 
islands  by  the  United  States,  or  is  it  his  duty 
to  uphold  the  hands  of  the  representatives  of  the 
United  States  in  doing  the  work  which  they  are 
sent  there  to  do,  to  wit,  that  of  guiding  the  islands 
to  peace  and  prosperity  ?  Of  course  it  is  difficult 
for  an  Occidental  to  put  himself  in  the  place  of 
the  Oriental,  but  I  have  had  a  good  deal  of 
opportunity  to  study  the  Filipino  people  and  to 
understand  in  a  dim  but  still  somewhat  compre- 
hensive way  the  characteristics  of  the  race.  I 
do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  strong  man  among 
them  believes  that  the  worst  thing  that  could 
happen  to  his  country  would  be  to  have  the  United 
States  abandon  it;  that  it  is  far  better  to  go  on 
as  proposed  by  us,  under  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Ignited  States,  with  a  gradual  extension  of  the 
electorate  to  the  people  who  show  themselves  quali- 
fied, and  of  the  governing  power  to  the  electorate. 
It  cannot  be  hoped  that  a  purely  Filipino  govern- 
ment by  the  educated  ten  per  cent  would  pursue 


72  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

a  policy  to  lift  the  other  ninety  per  cent  into  the 
ruling  class  and  share  with  them  the  political  power 
which  the  educated  ten  per  cent  expect  to  wield. 
Indeed,  that  is  exactly  what  many  of  the  educated 
ten  per  cent  wish  to  avoid.  They  are  in  favor  of 
an  oligarchy. 

In  an  examination  of  the  committee  of  the 
so-called  Independence  party,  conducted  by  the 
Senators  and  Congressmen  who  took  the  Philip- 
pine trip  last  summer,  the  leaders  did  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  in  their  judgment  the  Philippine 
people  were  quite  ready  for  self-government, 
because  the  ninety  per  cent  were  an  obedient 
serving  class,  while  the  ten  per  cent  were  a  direct- 
ing or  governing  class,  in  every  way  competent 
to  act  as  such,  and  thus  were  able  to  carry  on  an 
excellent  government.  I  need  hardly  say  that 
such  a  government  would  not  meet  the  views  that 
we  have  as  to  what  a  government  ought  to  be. 
The  ninety  per  cent  would  not  be  educated  or 
trained  to  become  self-governing  citizens,  but 
would  remain  in  the  status  which  they  now  oc- 
cupy. It  is  absolutely  true  that  most  of  those 
who  advocate  independence,  most  of  those  whose 
voices  we  hear  echoed  in  Boston  and  elsewhere 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  73 

in  the  demand  for  freedom  for  the  Philippines, 
are  persons  who  have  not  the  slightest  idea  of 
maintaining  in  the  islands  a  popular  government. 
But  it  is  said  the  oligarchical  government  is  the 
only  kind  of  government  for  which  the  people 
of  the  islands  can  ever  be  adapted.  Even  suppos- 
ing this  to  be  a  plausible  view,  it  is  likewise  true 
that  we  could  not  depend  on  any  stability  in  such 
a  government.  The  difficulty  is  that  the  govern- 
ing class  fall  out  so  easily  among  themselves  that 
were  we  to  permit  the  ten  per  cent  to  take  charge 
of  the  Government,  we  should  find  that  there  was 
no  cohesion  in  the  governing  class;  that  it  would 
divide  up  into  factions;  and  that  almost  before 
the  Americans  had  left  the  islands  there  would  be 
internecine  warfare  and  chaos  that  would  require 
the  Americans  to  return.  This  is  the  reason  why 
the  conservative  members  of  the  community  are 
satisfied  with  the  fact  that  the  American  Govern- 
ment has  control  over  the  islands,  for  they  realize 
that  no  other  government  in  the  world  could  be 
as  generous  and  as  disinterested  in  its  manage- 
ment of  the  archipelago.  Under  such  circum- 
stances it  seems  to  me  to  be  the  duty  of  a  lover 
of  his  race — a  citizen  of  the  Philippine  Islands — 


74  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

to  hold  up  the  hands  of  the  Americans  engaged  in 
attempting  to  prepare  all  the  people  for  the  exer- 
cise of  gradually  increasing  political  control. 

The  truth  is  that  even  the  ten  per  cent  of  the 
Filipinos  who  long  for  an  oligarchy  are  in  many 
respects  wholly  unfitted  to  assume  the  great  respon- 
sibilities of  government.     They  have  had  very  lit- 
tle experience;  their  views  are  expressed  in  ab- 
stract   principles.      One    witness    of    this    class, 
whom  I  summoned  early  in  the  days  of  our  stay 
on  the  islands,  I  asked  to  assist  us  in  the  mat- 
ter of  the  tax  laws  and  to  say  from  what  par- 
ticular  class   and   out   of   what   particular   prop- 
erty taxes  ought  to  be  raised.     He  said  he  had 
never   given   any   consideration   to   that    subject, 
because  he  considered  it  a  mere  detail.     Another 
body  of  men  of  the  Independence   party,    some 
of  whom  appeared  before  the  Congressmen,  had 
at  an  earlier  day  come  to  see  me  to  secure  per- 
mission to  organize  a  party  for  the  obtaining  of 
independence  by  peaceable  means.     I  attempted 
to  dissuade  them  from  the  task  at  that  time  be- 
cause there  were  still  guerrillas  and  robbers  in 
the  field.     I  was  afraid  that  in  the  organization 
of  such  a  party  a  great  many  physical-force  men 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  75 

would  become  incorporated  as  members,  and  that 
ultimately  these  very  good  gentlemen  who  made 
the  proposition  to  me  might  be  brought  under  sus- 
picion of  the  Department  of  Justice.  They  said 
to  me  that  they  desired  to  present  an  argument 
in  favor  of  their  plan  of  independence.  They  said, 
in  writing,  that  they  were  fit  for  self-government 
because  they  had  counted  over  the  number  of 
offices — central,  provincial,  and  municipal — and 
had  found  that  while  the  number  was  great,  they 
were  able  to  select  from  the  people  of  the  islands 
enough  educated  men  to  fill  every  office  twice; 
in  other  words,  that  if  one  shift  failed  for  any 
reasons  to  meet  the  requirements  of  office,  then 
there  was  another  shift  that  could  take  their 
places ;  and  with  these  two  shifts  they  regarded  it 
as  entirely  practicable  to  carry  on  any  sort  of  a 
complicated  government.  The  force  of  a  sound, 
safe  public  opinion  they  regarded  as  of  slight 
importance. 

The  men  who  are  in  favor  of  independence 
are  not  the  practical  Filipinos.  Ordinarily,  men 
of  property,  men  of  business,  men  who  by  the 
virtues  of  providence  and  self-restraint  and  fore- 
sight have  succeeded  in  laying  up  fortunes,  are 


76  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

convinced,  as  I  have  said,  that  it  would  be  the 
worst  blow  possible  to  the  islands  to  have  the 
Americans  leave  them  now.  But  the  uncertainty 
in  this  country  as  to  what  course  the  Government 
intends  to  pursue — the  impression  in  the  islands 
that  the  opposition  party  intends,  when  it  gets 
into  control  of  this  Government,  to  let  the  islands 
go — has  the  effect  of  making  every  native  in  the 
islands,  who  would  otherwise  speak  out  in  favor 
of  a  continuance  of  the  present  arrangement,  anx- 
ious lest  a  change  may  occur,  and  fearful  of  tak- 
ing such  a  position  that  he  may  suffer  when 
independence  is  granted. 

Finally  I  come  to  the  question,  What  is  the 
duty  toward  the  Philippine  Islands  of  the  Ameri- 
can citizens  making  up  the  American  electorate? 
I  have  heard  it  stated  that  our  people  are  get- 
ting tired  of  the  burden  of  governing  those  isl- 
ands ;  that  the  business  which  has  come  from  them 
has  not  been  sufficient  to  justify  the  outlay  that 
we  have  made;  and  that  any  method  of  rid- 
ding us  of  the  responsibility  for  their  govern- 
ment will  be  adopted  by  the  people.  I  differ 
from  this  view.  I  think  the  American  people 
know  that  they  did  not  seek  the  burden  of  carry- 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  77 

ing  on  the  government  of  the  Philippine  Islands, 
but  that  circumstances  were  such  that  they 
could  not  escape  it,  and  that  their  honor  as  a 
people  requires  that  they  discharge  the  duties  that 
it  involves.  We  are  a  great  and  a  prosperous 
nation.  Here  are  eight  millions  of  people  in  the 
tropics,  differing  very  much  from  our  own,  yet 
with  a  capacity  for  development  that  justifies  our 
making  the  experiment  of  educating  them — of 
leading  them  on  in  governmental  practice  to  see 
if  they  cannot  at  length  safely  walk  alone. 

We  have  already  done  a  great  deal  for  the 
Filipinos.  We  have  organized  a  good  government 
there ;  we  have  given  them  partial  representation 
in  it,  and  we  expect  to  give  them  a  larger  repre- 
sentation next  year  by  the  election  of  a  popular 
assembly  which  shall  be  one  branch  of  the  gov- 
erning legislature;  we  have  been  educating  and 
are  now  educating  in  the  English  language  a  half 
million  of  the  youth  of  the  islands;  we  have 
introduced  health  laws  and  enforced  them;  we 
have  suppressed  ladronism,  which  was  the  bane 
of  the  islands  in  Spanish  days;  we  have  elimi- 
nated the  question  of  the  friars'  lands.  Owing 
to  causes  beyond  our  control,  we  have  not  been 


78  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

able  to  bring  about  a  period  of  great  prosperity- 
there;  and  of  course  in  hard  times  it  is  difficult 
to  convince  the  people  that  the  Government  is 
not  in  some  way  responsible  for  this.  But  we  have 
given  the  islands  a  good  sound  gold-standard  cur- 
rency; we  have  given  them  extended  telegraph 
and  mail  communications;  and  we  are  just  now 
about  to  begin,  with  Government  encouragement, 
the  construction  of  some  seven  or  eight  hundred 
miles  of  railway. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  citizen  to  look  at  this 
experiment  from  the  right  standpoint;  to  under- 
stand that  we  are  not  in  the  Philippines  for  the 
purpose  of  making  trade,  but  that  we  are  there 
to  discharge  the  highest  duty  that  one  nation 
can  toward  another  people.  It  is  very  probable 
that  the  trade  between  the  Philippines  and  the 
United  States  will  increase  to  such  proportions 
as  to  make  that  particular  trade  useful  to  both 
countries.  But  we  cannot  base  our  conduct  or 
action  on  such  a  motive.  What  we  do  in  the 
Philippines  must  rest  on  our  national  duty — a 
duty  which  is  the  greater  because  of  our  pros- 
perity and  ability  to  discharge  it. 

This  policy  has  been  sustained  in  two  national 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  79 

elections,  and  the  question  therefore  arises,  "What 
is  the  duty  of  the  other  citizens  of  the  United 
States  who  have  heretofore  held  aloof  from  such  a 
policy  and  denounced  it  ?  Ought  they  not  now  to 
hold  up  the  hands  of  the  Government  and  assist  in 
every  way  to  make  the  experiment  which,  against 
their  will  and  against  their  express  vote,  the  Gov- 
ernment entered  upon?  Why  should  the  anti- 
imperialists,  so  called,  now  attempt  to  make  what 
we  do  in  the  Philippines  a  failure?  Is  it  not 
a  small  policy  and  an  unpatriotic  one?  In  the 
beginning  the  attitude  of  the  anti-imperialists  and 
their  extreme  statements  and  their  apparent  re- 
joicing at  American  defeats  undoubtedly  con- 
tinued the  war  of  the  insurrection  a  number  of 
months  and  probably  a  year  beyond  what  it  would 
have  been  had  the  insurgents  thought  the  whole 
people  was  behind  the  Government. 

It  is  frequently  said  that  Congress  cannot  give 
the  time  necessary  for  governing  the  Philippines ; 
that  it  cannot  consider  their  many  needs;  and 
therefore  that  our  government  is  not  one  adapted 
to  governing  dependencies.  I  differ  from  this 
view;  and  certainly  the  conduct  of  Congress 
toward  the  Philippines  does  not  justify  the  criti- 


SO  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

cism.  A  number  of  important  acts  have  been 
passed  which  have  conferred  power  to  govern  the 
islands  on  the  Philippine  Commission,  subject 
only  to  supervision  by  the  Secretary  of  War.  Con- 
gress has  been  generally  wise  to  put  the  power 
where  it  ought  to  be — in  Manila. 

The  truth  is,  considering  the  many  obstructions 
which  we  have  had  to  overcome  in  building  up 
the  Philippine  Government  and  the  Philippine 
people,  considering  the  dreadful  agricultural  de- 
pression in  the  islands  and  the  consequent  finan- 
cial depression,  the  present  condition  of  the 
islands  is  remarkable.  One  cannot  hope  to  be 
successful  in  government  unless  there  comes  every 
little  while  a  period  of  prosperity.  We  have  not 
had  such  a  period  since  we  have  been  in  the 
islands.  One  must  feed  a  man's  belly  before  he 
develops  his  mind  or  gives  him  political  rights. 
The  pendulum  must  swing  in  favor  of  the  islands 
and  prosperity  of  some  kind  must  come.  It  will 
be  greatly  aided  if  free  trade  between  the  United 
States  and  the  islands  should  be  established. 
Whether  this  will  happen  in  the  present  Con- 
gress, I  do  not  know.  That  it  will  come  ulti- 
mately, I  am  confident.     That  it  ought  to  come 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  81 

at  once,  I  am  sure.  When  it  does  come,  the 
people  of  the  islands  will  realize  how  much 
America  has  done  for  them.  Until  that  time  we 
must  expect  to  be  blamed  for  everything  in  the 
shape  of  ill  that  comes  to  the  islands  and  we 
must  expect  to  encounter  complaints  and  criti- 
cism from  the  Filipinos.  But  their  attitude  ought 
not  in  the  slightest  degree  to  affect  ours  or  to  take 
from  us  the  sense  of  obligation  that  we  should 
put  them  on  their  feet. 

The  great  principle  to  guide  us  is  that  we  are 
to  govern  the  Philippine  Islands  in  accordance 
with  the  maxim  "  the  Philippines  for  the  Fili- 
pinos." If  in  the  course  of  a  decade  or  a  quarter 
of  a  century  an  examination  of  all  the  legislation 
of  Congress  shall  reveal,  as  I  hope  it  may,  that 
this  was  the  motive  which  governed  substantially 
every  act  passed  by  that  body,  then  it  will  form 
a  great  exception  in  the  history  of  the  control  of 
dependent  possessions  by  great  nations.  No  one 
has  more  admiration  than  I  have  for  the  thorough 
and  effective  method  of  government  pursued  by 
England  with  respect  to  her  colonies,  both  those 
which  are  quasi-independent  and  those  which  are 
crown  colonies  absolutely  under  the  control  of  an 


82  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

appointed  government.  But  generally  it  will  be 
found  that  in  those  governments  England  has  pur- 
sued a  policy  of  enlightened  selfishness;  has,  so 
far  as  she  could,  recouped  herself  for  any  expendi- 
tures by  the  home  Government;  and  has  held 
them  primarily  with  a  view  to  the  improvement 
of  English  trade.  Her  opium  policy  with  respect 
to  Oriental  colonies  has  not  been  controlled  by 
the  highest  and  purest  motives;  and  a  large 
part  of  the  income  which  has  done  so  much  to  im- 
prove their  material  conditions,  to  build  roads  and 
construct  public  works,  can  be  traced  directly  to 
this  source.  The  spread  of  the  use  of  opium 
among  her  Oriental  subjects  is  quite  discourag- 
ing, and  a  change  in  that  part  of  her  policy 
ought  to  made.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  Eng- 
land has  not  generally  looked  well  after  the  ma- 
terial comfort  and  growth  and  prosperity  of  her 
subjects  in  tropical  colonies,  or  that  her  govern- 
ments have  not  always  made  for  better  civili- 
zation, justice,  and  security  of  life  and  property. 
She  has  established  and  conducted  excellent  gov- 
ernments, maintained  fine  order,  built  magnificent 
roads,  and  in  every  way  made  her  countries  fair 
to  look  upon.     I  think  it  can  hardly  be  said, 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  83 

however,  that  she  has  given  great  time  to  the 
improvement  of  the  individual  among  her  tropical 
peoples.  She  has  not  devoted  as  much  money 
or  as  much  time  as  she  should  have  devoted  to 
the  education  of  her  subjects  and  their  prepara- 
tion to  take  part  in  governmental  matters.  In 
this  respect  her  policy  is  exactly  the  opposite  of 
that  which  we  have  pursued  in  the  Philippines; 
and  it  is  supported  by  the  argument,  drawn 
from  the  experiences  of  men  long  accustomed  to 
deal  with  tropical  races,  that  it  is  much  wiser  to 
keep  them  in  ignorance,  to  keep  them  subject  to 
control,  than  to  give  them  by  education  ideas  of 
taking  part  in  the  government,  which  will  merely 
foment  discussion  and  agitation  which  do  not 
work  for  the  good  of  the  whole  number. 

The  most  altruistic  experiment  which  England 
has  attempted  in  the  management  of  tropical  races 
is  what  she  has  done  in  Egypt,  under  Lord  Cromer ; 
and  there  she  has  worked  wonders  for  the  people 
of  Egypt.  She  has  improved  marvellously  the 
prosperity  of  the  fellaheen  by  public  works;  she 
has  encouraged  agriculture;  she  has  introduced 
schools  and  made  some  attempt  at  the  education 
of  the  Egyptians.    The  admiration  of  people  who 


84  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

have  visited  Egypt  for  Lord  Cromer's  policy  and 
methods  is  certainly  no  greater  than  has  been 
justly  deserved;  but  in  the  Philippines  the  prin- 
ciple of  our  policy  is  far  more  advanced  than  that 
of  Lord  Cromer's  or  of  England's  anywhere.  It 
may  be  that  it  is  too  far  advanced ;  it  may  be  that 
it  is  an  experiment  that  is  doomed  to  failure ;  but 
at  any  rate  it  is  an  experiment  that  it  is  wise  for 
us  to  make.  We  can  afford  to  make  it ;  and  if  it 
be  a  failure,  we  can  afford  to  accept  the  responsi- 
bility for  the  failure.  That  experiment  is  the 
preparation,  by  education  and  by  the  gradual  ex- 
tension of  practice  in  governmental  matters,  of  a 
tropical  people  who  heretofore  have  not  had  any 
practical  experience  in  saying  how  they  shall 
themselves  be  governed.  In  beginning  this  experi- 
ment and  carrying  it  on,  it  must  be  understood 
that  there  are  certain  things  very  much  in  our 
favor,  and  that  there  are  others  which  constitute 
very  serious  obstacles  to  our  success. 

In  the  first  place,  we  have  a  people,  a  tropical 
people,  to  deal  with,  who  as  a  people  are  the  only 
Christians  in  the  Orient.  That  is,  there  are 
seven  millions  out  of  eight  millions  who  are  Chris- 
tians, and  have  been  Christians  under  the  influ- 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  85 

ence  of  Spain  and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
for  upward  of  250  years.  This  fact  turns  them 
naturally  to  Europe  and  to  America  for  their 
ideals  of  virtue  and  of  thought,  and  for  their  aims 
and  ambitions.  This  makes  them  far  more  sub- 
ject to  Western  influence  than  the  Mohammedans 
or  the  Buddhists,  both  of  whom  regard  the  Chris- 
tian religion  with  contempt  and  are  to  that  ex- 
tent proof  against  the  civilizing  ideas  of  modern 
Europe  and  America. 

Secondly,  though  the  people  are  in  a  state  of 
Christian  pupilage,  of  almost  total  ignorance,  they 
have  an  ambition,  that  it  is  easy  to  cultivate,  to 
take  advantage  of  education.  Nothing  is  more 
inspiring,  nothing  gives  more  hope  of  the  success 
of  what  we  are  doing,  than  the  interest  which  the 
poor  Filipinos,  the  "  taos "  as  they  are  called, 
manifest  in  having  their  children  receive  an  edu- 
cation in  English.  We  have  not  now  funds  en- 
abling us  to  educate  more  than  twenty-five  per 
cent  of  the  youth  of  school  age  in  the  islands; 
but  I  am  hoping  that  prosperity  will  increase  the 
funds  available  for  education,  and  that  Congress, 
out  of  the  abundance  of  this  country,  will  be  will- 
ing to  contribute  as  much  as  the  Philippine  Gov- 


86  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

ernment  itself  contributes,  thus  doubling  the  edu- 
cational facilities.  The  great  needs  are  primary 
education  and  industrial  education.  Industrial 
education  is  of  greater  importance  there  than  in 
this  country,  because  it  has  a  tendency  to  correct 
a  feeling  which  was  left  by  the  civilization  of 
Spain,  and  which  is  the  greatest  obstacle  that  has 
to  be  overcome — the  idea  that  labor  is  degrading 
and  an  evidence  of  slavery.  Industrial  education 
dignifies  labor. 

The  parts  of  the  earth  which  have  been  re- 
tarded, the  places  where  there  is  the  greatest  field 
for  progressive  work,  both  material,  intellectual, 
and  moral,  are  in  the  tropical  countries.  The 
discoveries  of  medical  science,  the  knowledge  of 
conditions  that  promote  health,  have  improved  to 
such  a  point  that  it  is  much  more  practicable  now 
for  people  of  the  temperate  zone  to  live  an  ex- 
tended period  in  the  tropics  without  injury  to 
health  than  it  was  a  decade  or  two  decades  ago. 
The  land  of  the  temperate  zones  is  rapidly  being 
absorbed.  Profit  lies  in  the  improvement  of  the 
tropical  countries;  agriculture,  mines,  and  other 
sources  of  revenue  are  there;  and  it  is  inevitable 
that  in  the  next  century  the  great  progress  of 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  87 

the  world  is  to  be  made  among  tropical  peoples 
and  in  tropical  countries.  Therefore  what  we  are 
doing  in  the  Philippines  is  merely  a  precursor 
of  what  will  be  done  in  other  lands  near  the 
equator ;  and  if  we  demonstrate  that  it  is  possible 
for  people  purely  tropical  to  be  educated  and 
lifted  above  the  temptations  to  idleness  and  sav- 
agery and  cruelty  and  torpor  that  have  thus  far 
retarded  the  races  born  under  the  equatorial  sun, 
we  shall  be  pointing  another  important  way  to 
improve  the  civilization  of  the  world. 

Hence  it  is  that  the  value  of  the  work  we  are 
doing  in  the  Philippines  rises  far  above  the  mere 
question  of  what  the  total  of  our  exports  and  im- 
ports may  be  for  this  year  or  for  next  year  or 
hereafter,  or  whether  they  are  at  present  a  burden. 
The  Philippine  question  is,  Can  the  dominion  of 
a  great  and  prosperous  civilized  nation  in  the  tem- 
perate zone  exercise  a  healthful  and  positively 
beneficial  influence  upon  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  a  tropical  people?  What  we  have  to  do 
is  in  a  sense  to  change  their  nature ;  it  is  to  fur- 
nish, by  developing  their  physical  and  intellectual 
wants,  a  motive  for  doing  work  which  does  not 
exist  under  their  present  conditions.     That  this 


88  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

can  be  done  I  have  no  doubt,  from  what  has  al- 
ready been  done  in  the  islands.  But  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  time  and  patience.  The  tropical  peoples 
cannot  lift  themselves  as  the  Anglo-Saxons  and 
other  peoples  of  the  cold  and  temperate  zones, 
where  the  inclemency  and  rigors  of  the  climate 
demand  effort  and  require  labor,  have  lifted  them- 
selves. The  struggle  that  these  tropical  peoples 
must  go  through  in  reaching  better  things  is  far 
more  difficult;  and  its  outcome  must  depend,  in 
my  judgment,  on  the  outside  aid  of  friendly  and 
guiding  nations.  The  principle  which  our  anti- 
imperialists  seek  to  apply,  that  people  must  acquire 
knowledge  of  self-government  by  independence,  is 
not  applicable  to  a  tropical  people.  We  cannot 
set  them  going  in  a  decade  and  look  to  their  future 
progress  as  certain.  We  must  have  them  for  a 
generation  or  two  generations,  or  perhaps  even 
three,  in  order  that  our  experiment  with  reference 
to  education,  primary  and  industrial,  shall  have 
its  effect,  and  that  our  guiding  hand,  in  teaching 
them  commonsense  views  of  government,  shall  give 
them  the  needed  direction.  It  is  supposed  that  if 
the  Democratic  party  comes  into  power  it  will  give 
up  the  islands  and  turn  them  over  to  the  control 


COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION  89 

of  the  people  who  inhabit  them.  I  venture  to  pre- 
dict— although  prediction  is  dangerous — that  the 
Democratic  party,  should  it  come  into  power, 
would  not  assume  this  responsibility,  but  would 
proceed  on  practically  the  same  lines  as  have  been 
followed  hitherto.  Such  a  result  would  be  de- 
sirable, because  then  it  would  be  shown  that  both 
political  parties  were  in  favor  of  the  policy  which 
has  been  instituted,  and  that  the  people  of  our 
country  would  unite  in  a  great  and  successful 
effort  for  the  benefit  of  humanity. 


IV 


THE  DUTIES  OP  CITIZENSHIP  VIEWED  FROM 
THE  STANDPOINT  OP  THE  NATIONAL 
EXECUTIVE 

Mk.  Peesident,  and  Gentlemen  of  Yaee  : 

The  subject  of  my  remarks  this  evening  is, 
"  The  Duties  of  Citizenship  from  the  Standpoint 
of  the  National  Executive." 

The  administration — the  President  and  his 
cabinet  officers  and  others  who  are  part  of  it — 
naturally  thinks  that  the  first  duty  of  a  citizen 
with  reference  to  the  national  Executive  is  to  hold 
up  its  hands  and  support  all  of  its  policies,  and 
be  properly  tender  and  gentle  in  dealing  with  its 
defects,  suspected  or  proven.  It  is  easy  for  the 
administration  to  fall  into  the  view  that  criti- 
cisms of  its  policy  and  misrepresentations  with  re- 
spect to  what  it  has  done,  or  has  not  done,  seri- 
ously affect  the  work  of  the  Government  and 
interfere  with  doing  it  well.  When  a  man  has 
great  executive  responsibility,  and  finds  that  his 

90 


THE  NATIONAL  EXECUTIVE  91 

plans  are  more  or  less  interfered  with  by  "what  ho 
regards  as  the  extravagances  and  injustices  of  the 
press,  there  is  an  unconscious  disposition  on  his 
part  to  believe  that  a  restriction  of  the  license 
of  the  press  would  be  a  very  excellent  thing,  and 
that  it  would  prevent  the  driving  away  from  his 
moral  support  of  the  sympathy  and  assistance  of 
the  public,  which  are  essential  to  the  ultimate 
success  of  the  plans  that  he  has  made  for  the  pub- 
lic good.  These  demands  for  restriction  of  the 
press  are  likely  to  be  more  unreasonable  and  ex- 
treme in  such  a  place  as  the  Philippines  or  Porto 
Rico,  where  misrepresentations  and  criticisms  are 
of  vastly  more  importance,  because  in  those  places 
the  views  of  the  native  population  of  particular 
matters  affect  the  success  of  governmental  meas- 
ures more  directly  than  they  can  in  this  country. 
We  are  anxious,  of  course,  to  impress  the  Filipinos 
with  our  disinterestedness  and  desire  for  their 
good.  The  American  press  of  Manila  has  fre- 
quently been  bitter  in  its  denunciation  of  the  en- 
tire Philippine  people,  and  has  stirred  up  among 
them  a  feeling  that  we  are  hypocrites,  and  that 
there  is  no  real  friendliness  on  our  part  toward 
them.    Yet  every  effort  to  secure  by  legal  proceed- 


92  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

ings  a  restraint  of  the  license  of  the  press,  or  the 
extravagances  and  misrepresentations  of  an  ir- 
responsible editor  or  newspaper  proprietor  in 
Manila,  is  a  great  deal  worse  than  the  evil  from 
which  the  complaint  arises;  because  it  dignifies 
the  issue  at  once  into  that  of  freedom  of  the  press, 
and  makes  the  man  who  is  prosecuted  or  in  any 
way  brought  into  court  a  martyr  for  the  cause  of 
free  speech.  It  is  vastly  better,  if  the  Executive 
only  realizes  the  truth,  that  the  injustice,  com- 
ment, and  unjust  criticism,  and  the  deliberate 
misrepresentations  that  sometimes  do  characterize 
articles  in  the  newspapers,  should  be  left  to  lose 
their  effect  by  the  gradual  discovery  of  the  ac- 
tual facts,  and  of  the  injustice  of  the  criticism, 
in  the  events  which  follow.  This  duty  of  citi- 
zenship not  to  criticise  public  servants  unjustly 
and  not  to  misrepresent  the  character  of  their 
commissions  and  omissions  is  of  course  an  im- 
portant one;  a  violation  of  it  is  frequently  a 
serious  hindrance  to  the  accomplishment  of  valu- 
able results  from  a  patriotic  and  governmental 
standpoint;  but  while  headlines  seem  outrageous, 
and  while  articles  seem  to  be  fraught  with  great 
and  vicious  results,  because  they  are  untruthful 


THE  NATIONAL  EXECUTIVE  93 

and  exaggerated  and  sensational,  the  evil  neutral- 
izes itself.  Our  people  are  intelligent  and  keen. 
They  are  ahle  after  experience  to  gauge  the  impor- 
tance to  be  attached  and  the  confidence  to  be  ac- 
corded to  statements  so  extreme  that  they  bear 
between  their  lines  the  refutation  of  what  they 
express.  The  press  is  essential  to  our  civilization 
and  plays  an  unofficial  but  vital  role  in  the  affairs 
of  government.  The  discipline  of  a  fear  of  pub- 
licity, the  restraining  and  correcting  influence  of 
the  prospect  of  fearless  criticism,  are  of  much 
value  in  securing  a  proper  administration  of  pub- 
lic affairs.  The  exercise  of  power  without  danger 
of  criticism  produces  an  irresponsibility  in  a  pub- 
lic officer  which,  even  if  his  motives  are  pure, 
tends  to  negligence  in  some  cases  and  arbitrary 
action  in  others. 

Speaking  from  a  Washington  standpoint,  the 
standard  of  newspaper  correspondents  at  the  na- 
tional capital,  representing  all  the  great  dailies 
and  all  the  press  associations,  is  on  the  whole  a 
high  one ;  higher,  I  think,  than  that  of  any  other 
newspaper  men,  as  a  class,  that  I  know.  Such 
men,  when  they  have  established  the  right  to  have 
it,  as  most  of  them  have,  share  the  confidence  of 


94  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

Senators,  of  the  leading  members  of  Congress,  of 
the  Cabinet,  and  even  of  the  President  himself; 
and  they  are  most  careful  to  observe  the  lines 
which  are  laid  down  in  these  confidences,  re- 
straining the  extent  of  their  publication.  The 
amount  of  information  that  the  Washington  cor- 
respondents have  which  they  do  not  give  to  the 
public  would  surprise  most  men  not  familiar  with 
affairs  in  the  nation's  capital.  The  truth  is  that 
the  partisan  character  of  despatches  that  are  seen 
in  some  newspapers  is  determined  rather  by  in- 
structions from  headquarters  that  by  any  dis- 
position of  the  correspondents  themselves  to  give 
a  colored  account  of  the  facts. 

Another  topic  that  perhaps  deserves  considera- 
tion here,  in  discussing  the  duty  of  the  citizen 
toward  the  national  administration,  is  the  suppres- 
sion of  personal  feelings  in  questions  of  foreign 
policy.  How  far,  when  this  nation  is  dealing  with 
other  nations,  either  in  making  treaties,  or  in  mat- 
ters likely  to  lead  to  a  war,  or  in  actual  war,  ought 
a  citizen,  disregarding  all  party  considerations,  to 
stand  by  his  own  government  and  hold  up  its  hands 
in  achieving  a  successful  result?  It  would  be 
going  very  far  to  say  that  no  matter  how  unjust 


THE  NATIONAL  EXECUTIVE  95 

a  war  there  ought  to  be  no  criticism  by  American 
people  of  the  conduct  of  the  administration  in 
such  a  crisis.  In  a  free  government  the  right 
and  duty  to  criticise  that  which  is  plainly  wrong 
obtain  and  ought  to  obtain,  no  matter  how  critical 
the  situation  with  respect  to  an  international 
controversy.  But  I  submit  that  the  natural  atti- 
tude of  the  partisan  toward  the  administration,  at 
times  when  the  country's  welfare  in  war  or  in 
approaching  war  is  at  stake,  should  be  laid  aside ; 
that  the  presumption  should  be  indulged  that 
our  country  is  right  in  its  contentions  and  that 
its  opponent  is  wrong,  unless  the  attitude  of  our 
country  is  so  indefensible  that  it  is  impossible 
to  avoid  condemnation  of  those  who  are  respon- 
sible for  it.  Nothing  so  interferes  with  the  suc- 
cess of  a  nation  in  carrying  out  international 
matters  as  a  fire  in  the  rear  by  part  of  its  own 
people.  Everything  that  is  said  of  that  char- 
acter is  at  once  repeated  in  the  newspapers  and 
public  prints  of  the  opposing  nation,  and  strength- 
ens it  in  its  unyielding  attitude  toward  our  con- 
tentions. I  remember  that  in  an  article  on  this 
subject  Secretary  Olney  deprecated  the  spirit  of 
partisanship  that  was  developed  in  many  of  the 


96  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

newspapers  and  magazines  of  this  country  in  in- 
ternational matters  as  compared  with  the  conduct 
of  opposition  newspapers  in  such  crises  in  Eng- 
land. Of  a  similar  character  is  the  position  taken 
by  some  with  respect  to  our  attempt  to  set  up  and 
maintain  a  government  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Filipinos  in  the  Philippines.  This  I  mentioned 
last  night.  If  our  policy  there  is  to  be  unsuc- 
cessful— as  I  hope  and  believe  it  will  not  be — 
this  result  can  be  charged  largely  to  the  agita- 
tion, unreasonable,  bitter,  partisan,  altogether  un- 
just, of  the  so-called  anti-imperialists;  who  seek 
not  merely  to  criticise  and  bring  to  the  public 
mind  most  unfair  statements  of  the  defects  of 
our  policy  and  its  failure,  but  deliberately  to 
embarrass  us  with  the  people  of  the  Philippine 
Islands  in  everything  that  we  attempt  to  do. 
There  are  instances  in  which  the  spirit  of  op- 
position to  the  policy  of  the  Government  was 
originally  roused  by  entirely  sincere  and  proper 
motives,  but  in  which  there  has  been  developed 
a  bitterness  of  feeling  until  all  fair  judgment  has 
disappeared  and  there  is  substituted  an  intense 
desire  that  the  arguments  in  opposition  to  the 
policy  shall  be  vindicated  by  the  proof  of  abuses 


THE  NATIONAL  EXECUTIVE  97 

and  by  failure  of  the  policy.  This  attitude,  which 
I  may  call  unjudicial  and  unpatriotic,  interferes 
materially  with  our  success  in  conciliating  the 
Filipino  people,  because  they  are  very  responsive 
to  any  report  and  have  no  sense  of  proportion  in 
judging  of  the  credibility  and  weight  to  be  given 
to  such  partisan  statements.  In  this  country  any 
such  attitude  or  course  of  conduct  is  unpopular, 
and  is  generally  rebuked  at  the  polls. 

One  of  the  chief  reasons  for  the  misjudging 
of   the   characters    of    rulers    of   nations    is    the 
failure  of  the  critics,  the  historians,  and  the  peo- 
ple themselves  fully  to  appreciate  the  actual  limi- 
tations and  restrictions  upon  the  exercise  of  a  sup- 
posedly unlimited  governing  power.      The  most 
absolute  monarch  has  limitations  upon  his  freedom 
of  action  that  are  little  understood  except  by  those 
who  are  on  the  ground  and  close  enough  to  him 
and  his  daily  walks  of  life  to  understand  how 
the   circumstances   hem   in  the   exercise   of   his 
discretion,  limit  him  in  that  which  he  would  like 
to  do,   and  prevent  absolutely  his  carrying  out 
the   ideals  which   as   a  free   man   he   would  be 
glad  to  follow.     The  same  thing  is  in  a  much 
greater  degree  true  of  the  power  of  the  Presi- 


98  FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

dent  and  of  the  members  of  the  administration. 
Take  for  instance  the  appointing  power.    A  mem- 
ber of   a   community   remote   from   the   capital, 
studying  politics  from  the  standpoint  of  entire 
indifference,   with   the   critical   faculty  well   de- 
veloped,   wonders    that    a    president,    with    high 
ideals  and  professions  of  a  desire  to  keep  the 
government  pure   and  have   efficient  public  ser- 
vants,  can  appoint  to  an  important  local  office 
a  man  of  mediocre  talent  and  of  no  particular 
prominence  or  standing  or  character  in  the  com- 
munity.    Of  course  the  President  cannot  make 
himself  aware  of  just  what  standing  the  official 
appointed  has.     He  cannot  visit  the  district;  he 
cannot   determine   by   personal   examination  the 
fitness  of  the  appointee.     He  must  depend  upon 
the  recommendations  of  others ;  and  in  matters  of 
recommendations   as   indeed   of  obtaining   office, 
frequently  it  is  leg  muscle  and  lack  of  modesty 
which  win,  rather  than  fitness  and  character.    The 
President  has  assistance  in  making  his  selection, 
furnished  by  the  Congressmen  and  the  Senators 
from  the  locality  in  which  the  office  is  to  be  filled ; 
and    he   is   naturally   quite    dependent    on    such 
advice   and   recommendation.      He   is  made  the 


THE  NATIONAL  EXECUTIVE  99 

more  dependent  on  this  because  the  Senate,  by 
the  Constitution,  shares  with  him  the  appointing 
power.  It  is  true  that  strictly  and  technically 
speaking  he  has  the  initiative  and  the  Senate  only 
the  ratifying  or  confirming  power ;  but  practically, 
because  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Senators  of  the 
locality,  the  appointing  power  is  in  effect  in 
their  hands  subject  only  to  a  veto  by  the  Presi- 
dent; and  the  Senators  in  turn  are  hampered, 
first,  by  the  fact  that  many  competent  and  prom- 
inent men  will  not  accept  the  places,  and  again 
by  the  fact  that  under  our  political  system  there 
is  much  pressure  on  them  to  recognize  the  party 
services  of  men  who  are  more  active  as  politicians 
than  they  are  successful  as  business  men.  On 
the  whole,  I  think  the  character  of  the  Federal 
employees  the  country  over  is  excellent;  but  of 
course  there  are  exceptions,  and  it  is  the  ex- 
ceptions upon  which  the  criticism  of  an  admin- 
istration is  based,  and  properly  based,  because  the 
number  of  the  exceptions  determines  the  care 
with  which  all  such  appointments  are  made. 

This  naturally  leads  to  the  consideration  of 
a  limitation  upon  the  policies  which  the  President 
may  favor  or  undertake.     Under  our  system  of 


100        FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

politics  the  President  is  the  head  of  the  party 
which  elected  him,   and  cannot  escape  responsi- 
bility either  for  his  own  executive  work  or  for 
the  legislative  policy  of  his  party  in  both  Houses. 
He  is,   under  the   Constitution,   himself   a   part 
of  the  legislature  in  so  far  as  he  is  called  upon 
to  approve  or  disapprove  acts  of  Congress.     A 
president    who    took   no    interest    in    legislation, 
who  sought  to  exercise  no  influence  to  formulate 
measures,    who    altogether   ignored   his   responsi- 
bility as  the  head  of  the  party  for  carrying  out 
ante-election  promises  in  the  matter  of  new  laws, 
would  not  be  doing  what  is  expected  of  him  by 
the  people.     In  the  discharge  of  all  his  duties, 
executive  or  otherwise,  he  is  bound  to  a  certain 
extent  to  consult  the  wishes  and  even  the  preju- 
dices of  the  members  of  his  party  in  both  Houses, 
in  order  that  there  shall  be  secured  a  unity  of 
action  by  which  necessary  progress  may  be  made 
and  needed  measures   adopted.      I  need   hardly 
point  out,  for  I  have  already  referred  to  it  in  my 
first  lecture,  the  absolute  necessity  of  parties  in 
a  popular  government,  and  the  fact  that  efficiency 
of  government,  other  things  being  equal,  is  greatly 
promoted  by  party  uniformity  and  solidarity  of 


THE  NATIONAL  EXECUTIVE  101 

opinion.  In  order  to  attain  this  unity  of  party 
action,  in  order  to  make  any  progress  for  the 
better,  the  administration  is  obliged  to  give  up  or 
hold  in  abeyance  measures  that  it  would,  other 
things  being  equal,  heartily  approve;  and,  in  a 
series  of  compromises,  it  is  bound  to  sacrifice  some 
of  its  aims  in  order  to  accomplish  others  more 
important.  Now  it  by  no  means  follows  that 
this  is  on  the  whole  not  a  useful  condition  in 
government.  \  Popular  government  must  be  a 
series  of  compromises.  I  The  resultant  mean  is 
often  better  than  the  extreme  which  would  be 
reached  if  an  administration  were  able  to  carry 
out  all  its  views.  A  conservative  course  is  the 
result  of  the  very  limitation  imposed  on  the  pro- 
jected policies  of  the  administration  by  the  neces- 
sity for  conciliating  the  many  different  people 
and  interests  that  constitute  controlling  factors  in 
a  party.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  under  our  gov- 
ernment of  the  people  things  are  not  done  that 
ought  to  be  done ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  if  these 
restraining  influences  were  absent,  we  might  be 
led  into  extreme  measures  which  would  be  disas- 
trous in  their  results.l 

The  policy  of  those  responsible  for  the  national 


102        FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

administration  in  any  respect  must  be  judged  as 
a  whole,  after  sufficient  time  has  elapsed  to  meas- 
ure properly  what  has  been  done.  It  is  a  very 
unsafe  and  unfair  thing  to  judge  a  single  act  and 
its  probable  bearing  on  the  rest  of  a  policy  of  the 
administration;  and  fortunately  the  people  under- 
stand this  fact.  In  the  end,  the  judgment  of  the 
people  is  probably  as  safe  and  fair  as  any  judg- 
ment could  be,  for  they  take  the  administration 
of  public  affairs  by  and  large;  and  while  they  do 
not  always  credit  men  with  the  highest  and  purest 
motives,  and  recognize  that  there  is  much  human 
nature  in  man,  they  are  not  searching  for  reasons 
for  distrusting  the  good  faith  and  the  desire  for 
good  government  in  their  public  servants. 

One  of  the  encouraging  experiences  of  men  who 
live  in  Washington  and  are  close  to  the  main- 
springs of  national  policy,  both  in  Congress  and 
in  the  Executive,  is  to  find  how  much  less  in- 
fluential are  private  interests  in  the  matter  of 
legislation  and  executive  action  than  is  generally 
held  by  critics  who  are  not  familiar  with  the 
situation.  The  hard  work  that  is  done  by  men 
whose  bugles  are  not  blown,  the  effort  that  there 
is  on  the  part  of  legislators  and  executive  officials 


THE  NATIONAL  EXECUTIVE  103 

to  subserve  the  public  interest,  cannot  be  known 
except  by  intimacy  with  public  affairs.  I  do  not 
mean  to  deny  that  at  times  private  and  special 
interests  do,  in  fact,  exercise  an  influence  to  the 
extent  of  defeating  needed  legislation;  but  in  the 
end,  though  it  may  take  one  or  two  or  three  Con- 
gresses, the  sense  of  public  duty  and  the  clearness 
of  vision  that  discussion  and  deliberation  give 
ultimately  bring  about  the  kind  of  legislation 
which  the  people  want,  formulated  by  those  whose 
interest  in  the  public  welfare  is  sincere. 

Of  course  there  is  a  kind  of  influence  at  Wash- 
ington that  disfigures  legislation  and  retards  exec- 
utive action  of  general  importance  and  interest; 
an  influence  exercised  by  those  who  prefer  what 
they  suppose  to  be  the  interest  of  a  locality  or  dis- 
trict to  the  interest  of  the  nation  at  large.  The 
people  of  congressional  districts  and  of  States 
compete  with  each  other  through  their  representa- 
tives in  Congress  and  in  the  Senate  to  shape  na- 
tional legislation  for  local  advantage;  to  secure 
the  investment  of  national  funds  in  public  works 
and  the  construction  of  military  posts  and  other 
great  governmental  institutions  in  one  part  of  the 
country  instead  of  another.     It  is  impossible  that 


104        FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

these  influences  should  not  be  exerted,  and  they 
do  more  or  less  affect  the  efficacy  of  measures 
adopted  for  a  national  purpose.  But  these  are 
incidents  inevitable  in  the  character  of  the  gov- 
ernment that  we  have;  they  are  inherent  in  our 
system;  and  with  the  great  benefits  that  proceed 
from  the  popular  basis  of  our  government,  we  may 
well  put  up  with  some  inconveniences  and  minor 
obstacles  to  the  most  efficient  national  administra- 
tion. 

One  of  the  facts  that  is  not  often  made  prom- 
inent is  that  in  our  Government  at  Washington 
there  is  an  entity  distinct  in  many  ways  from 
the  President  and  Cabinet  officers  charged  with 
the  responsibility  of  the  executive  policies,  and 
distinct  from  Congress  charged  with  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  legislative  policies.  For  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  years,  since  the  beginning  of  the 
Constitution,  we  have  been  perfecting  the  admin- 
istrative departments  of  the  Government.  Most 
of  the  positions  in  these  departments  now  are 
filled  by  selection  under  the  civil-service  law  or 
by  promotions  from  positions  thus  filled.  We  have 
a  complicated  structure,  which  has  grown  with 
the   needs   of   the    Government;    it   is   an   enor- 


THE  NATIONAL  EXECUTIVE  105 

mous  machine,  so  officered  and  adjusted  that  it 
would  run  itself  with  great  efficiency  without  a 
President  and  without  a  Cabinet  and  without 
Congress,  except  for  the  lack  of  the  appropriation 
of  the  money  necessary  to  pay  the  cost.  It  is  an 
organization  whose  members  have  been  trained  by 
long  experience,  and  now,  under  the  civil-service 
law  which  prevents  their  being  made  the  foot- 
ball of  politics  and  secures  to  them  a  permanent 
tenure  of  office,  are  put  in  a  position  of  im- 
partiality and  indifference  to  other  considerations 
than  those  of  the  efficiency  of  governmental  work. 
They  are,  it  is  true,  affected  more  perhaps  than 
they  need  be  by  the  traditions  as  to  how  govern- 
mental work  has  been  done  from  the  beginning, 
but  my  experience  with  this  machine  in  two  de- 
partments is  that  generally  this  routine  part  of 
the  life  of  the  Government  (and  it  makes  up 
>  ninety-five  hundredths  of  that  life)  is  carried  on 
by  men  who  have  an  eye  single  to  the  interests 
of  the  Government  and  to  the  conduct  of  its 
affairs  according  to  law  and  according  to  the  pub- 
lic interests.  The  civil-service  law  has  now  been 
in  operation  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
and,  although  violated  at  first,  it  has  come  to  be 


106        FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

more  and  more  regarded  as  essential  to  the  life 
of  the  Government;  and  it  has  finally  made  the 
organization  to  which  I  refer  indifferent  to  party- 
changes  and  unaffected  by  them,  and  has  greatly 
increased  the  certainty  of  proper  administra- 
tion. 

I  do  not  mean  by  what  I  have  said  to  mini- 
mize the  importance  of  the  position  of  the  Presi- 
dent or  of  the  heads  of  the  departments  in  the 
administration  of  public  affairs.  The  heads  have 
to  determine  in  many  instances  important  ques- 
tions of  broad  policy;  but  the  aggregate  of  these 
questions  is  quite  small  in  proportion  to  those 
which  arise  every  day  and  have  to  be  decided  by 
men  who  from  long  training  are  even  better  able 
to  decide  them  than  their  superiors  who  control 
the  administration.  Of  course  the  influence  that 
the  heads  of  an  administration  may  have  upon 
the  whole  civil  service  is  very  great,  if  the  de- 
termination of  the  heads  of  the  Government  that 
the  administration  shall  be  pure  and  shall  not 
be  affected  injuriously  by  partisan  or  other  undue 
influence  is  well  understood.  It  strengthens  the 
body  of  permanent  civil  servants  in  their  good 
work  and  secures  from  them  a  closer  adherence  to 


THE  NATIONAL  EXECUTIVE  107 

the  public  interests  and  to  the  best  traditions  of 
the  service. 

This  Government,  as  you  know,  is  divided  into 

three  departments — the  executive,  the  legislative, 

and  the  judicial.     It  is  frequently  charged  that 

the  tendency  of  the  modern  Executive  is  to  usurp 

the  functions  of  Congress  by  seeking  to  control 

and  influence  legislation  in  violation  of  the  spirit 

of  the  Constitution.     I  have  already  pointed  out 

the  constitutional  participation  in  legislation  by 

communications  to  Congress  and  by  the  exercise 

of  the  veto  power,  with  which  the  Executive  is 

expressly  vested;  and  I  have  also  attempted  to 

show   what,    under   our    system   of   politics,    are 

the  position  and  obligation  of  the  President  as 

head  of  the  party  through  whose  instrumentality 

he  must  accomplish  any  progress  dependent  on 

affirmative  legislation.     The  party  traditions  not 

only  justify  but  require  him  to  take  an  active 

interest  in  it,  and  so  to  unify  the  members  of  his 

party  as  to  secure  that  solidarity  without  which 

initiative  for  good  is  quite  impracticable. 

History  does  not  bear  out  the  charge  that  there 
is  any  usurpation  by  the  Executive  of  legislative 
functions.     On  the  contrary  the  tendency  is  ex- 


108        FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

actly  the  other  way.  Congress  in  its  legislation 
has  frequently  failed  to  recognize  a  thing  which 
the  Constitution  certainly  intended,  to  wit:  free- 
dom of  discretion  in  executive  matters  for  the 
Chief  Magistrate  and  his  subordinates.  I  need 
not  go  back  of  the  Tenure  of  Office  Act,  passed 
by  Congress  in  the  administration  of  President 
'Johnson,  by  which  it  was  attempted  to  limit  ma- 
terially the  power  of  appointment  that  the  Presi- 
dent certainly  has  under  the  Constitution.  The 
act  was  repealed  after  Mr.  Johnson  went  out  of 
office,  and  I  think  it  is  generally  recognized  now 
that  it  was  an  undue  stretch  of  legislative  power. 
I  do  not  mean  to  deny  that  the  line  between 
proper  legislative  limitation  upon  the  mode  of 
exercise  of  executive  power  and  unconstitutional 
restriction  is  sometimes  very  difficult  to  draw; 
but  the  danger  that  the  Executive  will  ever  exceed 
his  authority  is  much  less  than  the  danger  that 
the  Legislature  will  exceed  its  jurisdiction.  The 
Commons  of  England  won  freedom  and  brought 
about  a  popular  government  through  its  insist- 
ence upon  holding  the  purse-strings ;  and  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  has  exactly  that  con- 
trol over  the  Executive  which  enables  it  at  all 


THE  NATIONAL  EXECUTIVE  109 

times  to  restrain  the  exercise  of  executive  power 
by  withholding  the  appropriations  absolutely  nec- 
essary to  the  exercise  of  executive  power  at  all. 
With  that  dependence  upon  Congress,  the  execu- 
tive branch  can  never  be  untrammelled  in  the 
conduct  of  public  affairs.  It  is  always  respon- 
sible to  Congress  to  explain  what  it  has  done  with 
the  money  already  appropriated,  and  it  must  al- 
ways make  a  showing  of  the  money  needed  for 
executive  work  during  the  next  ensuing  year.  In 
other  words,  the  Executive  is  always  a  petitioner 
at  the  door  of  Congress  for  the  money  necessary 
to  carry  on  public  affairs;  and  as  long  as  that 
relation  exists  the  frequently  expressed  fear  that 
the  Executive  is  overshadowing  the  Legislature  is 
merely  imaginative — useful  for  glowing  periods 
and  party  platforms,  but  for  nothing  else. 

Life  in  Washington  leads  most  men  who  are 
impartial  and  who  take  broad  views  of  affairs 
to  a  condition  of  reasonable  optimism  as  to  the 
progress  toward  better  things.  The  account  that 
one  receives  of  the  defects  of  earlier  administra- 
tions and  the  corruption  that  at  times  prevailed 
shows  that  we  have  made  great  improvement ;  and 
it  is  not  unfair  to  say  that  there  is  a  high  standard 


110         FOUR  ASPECTS  OF  CIVIC  DUTY 

of  morality  and  public  conduct  throughout  all  the 
departments  and  the  executive  and  legislative 
branches  of  the  Government.  I  do  not  mean  to 
deny  that  there  are  individual  instances  of  neglect 
of  public  duty  and  possibly  of  corrupt  methods; 
but,  on  the  whole,  one  who  is  familiar  with  the 
workings  of  the  Government  at  Washington  may 
well  take  heart  and  courage  at  the  general  level  of 
good  and  honest  legislation.  Efficiency  of  adminis- 
tration has  been  greatly  promoted  by  the  widening 
of  the  application  of  the  civil-service  law;  which 
has  so  reduced  the  calls  upon  the  time  of  the  heads 
of  the  departments  and  the  President  that  they  are 
able  to  give  to  matters  of  public  interest  a  great 
deal  of  time  which  before  the  enactment  of  this 
law  was  taken  up  in  discussing  the  merest  details 
as  to  the  selection  of  clerks. 

There  has  been  a  question  mooted  whether  it 
would  not  be  wiser  to  allow  Cabinet  officers  to  take 
part  in  the  debates  of  Congress,  as  do  the  Eng- 
lish parliamentary  executive  leaders,  who  are 
really  elected  as  legislators  to  begin  with  and  are 
selected  as  executives  afterward.  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  it  might  aid  much  the  deliberations 
of  Congress  if  such  a  policy  were  adopted,  but 


THE  NATIONAL  EXECUTIVE  111 

there  are  inconveniences  connected  with  it  that 
perhaps  will  forever  prevent  a  change  of  this 
character. 

The  disposition  of  the  Legislature  to  investi- 
gate and  criticise  executive  action  is  one  of  the 
most  important  influences  toward  a  better  gov- 
ernment that  exists  in  our  system.  Investiga- 
ting committees  of  Congress  are  always  at  work; 
and  the  fear  of  such  investigations,  the  fear  of 
just  criticisms  on  the  floor  of  either  House,  has 
a  most  salutary  and  restraining  effect  upon  the 
naturally  wasteful  and  somewhat  arbitrary  dis- 
position of  human  nature  in  the  exercise  of  power. 
On  the  whole,  when  one  looks  into  the  system  of 
government  at  Washington  and  regards  it  from 
the  standpoint  of  an  impartial,  tolerant  citizen  and 
critic,  taking  into  consideration  all  the  limitations 
of  structure  and  constitution  which  prevent  any 
government  from  becoming  a  perfect  machine,  he 
cannot  but  reach  the  conclusion  that  we  are  a  for- 
tunate people,  who  have  progressed  far  in  the 
development  of  an  efficient  public  service  and 
in  vindicating  the  theory  of  popular  sovereignty. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


1Q72 

MAR  1  9  1972 

ftUTD  i-O-URL 
12 


A- 


^ 


Form  LO-Sories  4939 


AA    000  822  014    7 


